A final decision on who will become the next president of the College of The Bahamas could come over the “next few days and weeks” following a “review of the facts,” COB’s Council said in a move to put an end to the latest round of controversy surrounding the college’s leadership.
In a full-page newspaper ad that addressed COB’s leadership process, the Council said that only when it is satisfied there has been sufficient consultation will it meet again to make a final determination on who will replace the college’s former president Dr. Rodney Smith, who left the college last year after a plagiarism debacle.
“There can hardly be anything more important to the future of the college than what we say and do and the decisions that the Council and all other College constituents make over the next few days and weeks,” said the Council.
“A decision of such great importance should not be forced by any political agenda, or indeed any agenda save for that of the promotion of the common good of the college and, by extension, The Bahamas.”
It’s a much-anticipated decision that the Council would like to make in time for the new academic year and holds the hope that it will bring an end to difficulties that have plagued the college’s leadership for years and “retarded the progress towards university status.”
In an effort to provide a record of the college’s leadership process, the Council addressed three major issues surrounding what some have described as the controversial candidacy of Canadian Janyne Hodder, in the full-page ad.
One of those issues involved claims of a breach of protocol in the selection process, which has drawn strong criticism from some faculty and students at the college.
The Council has claimed that two of its members “appeared” to have already decided that Ms. Hodder’s visit to Nassau would constitute a breach of protocol, even before the former presidential candidate arrived on the island.
“As the Council understands it, the second ‘breach of protocol’ occurred when Ms. Janyne Hodder arrived on the island and two members of the Council stated that they did not know of an invitation to Ms. Hodder,” the Council said.
While the Council maintains that the question of whether to extend an invitation to explore the possibility of Ms. Hodder’s candidacy was fully discussed at a Council meeting and a vote was taken by oral consensus, two members – representatives of the Union of Tertiary Educators of The Bahamas [UTEB] and the COB Union of Students [COBUS] – recall the conversation but do not remember a formal vote.
“All Council members, except two, the UTEB and COBUS representatives, have a clear recollection that the decision was to extend an invitation and achieve the visit as soon as practicable. The two members recall the discussion but do not remember a formal vote. It appears that the supposed breach of procedure occurred when Council, as is usual, took its vote by oral consensus, rather than by show of hands. There is no dispute that, for years, the Council has generally used this approach,” according to the ad.
The Council said it appeared as though two members of the Council had already framed the view that Ms. Hodder’s visit to the island would constitute a breach of protocol, before she arrived, and noted that there “is no record that either the Council chairman or Council secretary had been given notice that the [two members] had formed such a view.”
When Ms. Hodder, the vice-principal of the prestigious McGill University in Canada, was introduced as a presidential candidate at a meeting last month, about half of the college’s faculty stormed out of the auditorium.
UTEB and COBUS complained that Ms. Hodder seemed to have been given preferential treatment because she got the opportunity to speak to the faculty, but that opportunity was not afforded to the other two candidates.
However those who strongly objected to the Council and its chairman Franklyn Wilson insist that their problem was not with Ms. Hodder but with the process through which she seemed to have been selected as a candidate.
Ms. Hodder, who has reportedly withdrawn from the candidacy, has a long resume of academic accomplishments and is a mother of two Bahamian children. She was also among the first group of lecturers at the college and is the former president of Bishop’s University in Canada.
Responding to UTEB’s request for the full report of the stakeholder groups who participated in interviewing the local candidates – acting president Dr. Rhonda Chipman-Johnson and Dr. Pandora Johnson – the Council said it would be “inappropriate.”
“Sample comments from such groups who participated in interviewing the two local candidates were read at a Council meeting. It would be inappropriate for the private comments of individuals to be exposed to the general membership of any stakeholder group,” said the Council.
“Apart from having negative ethical implications and breaching confidentiality obligations, revealing such information would risk discouraging open and forthright commentary from the College community in the future and could reduce COB’s chances for attracting quality candidates for senior management positions in the short term.”
The Council said that of particular concern was the potential for inflicting irreparable damage in cases where that commentary might have been less than complimentary.
The relationship between the Council and UTEB appears strained as the union filed a trade dispute with the Department of Labour on Friday, claiming that the Council was refusing to sing an industrial agreement.
However, Council chairman Franklyn Wilson told The Bahama Journal on Friday that the Council has every intention of concluding the agreement, although he said the Council has “never seen a comprehensive document which the union is proposing.”
Other questions addressed by the Council in the ad included whether it gave Ms. Hodder an unfair advantage in inviting her to address a general meeting of faculty and staff.
Some have claimed that the other candidates should have been given the same chance.
In its answer to the question, the Council made three points – that the three candidates were exposed to all the same stakeholder groups; the college’s faculty and staff not only had the opportunity to interview the local candidates but would have seen them in their day-to-day administrative functions; and the meeting set up for Ms. Hodder was an attempt to follow the same procedure as with the other candidates.
“However, the official representatives of the faculty, for whatever reason, found it inconvenient to attend the meeting organised specifically for them. Not wishing to deprive the faculty and others who might have wished an opportunity for contact with the candidate, the Council issued a general invitation, which members of the College community were free to accept or not accept,” said the Council.
The Council also emphasised that as Ms. Hodder is an active senior official in a major university, the organisation of her introduction to COB stakeholders had to fit within the boundaries of available time.
“For this reason, the meetings had to fit within a four-day period. Nonetheless, Ms. Hodder was, as were the other candidates, exposed to a representatives of all stakeholder groups – College Cabinet, the Quarter Century Club, middle managers/staff, students,” said the Council.
The Council also denied that there has been a lack of transparency on its part, maintaining that it worked “extremely precisely” to be transparent to and with stakeholder groups within and outside of the academy.
By: Erica Wells, The Bahama Journal
