'We need to clean house': BCU students call for change at the top amid financial crisis

VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. — In the face of institutional instability, the interim president of Bethune-Cookman University says he's not going anywhere, even as students and alumni want a new board of trustees.

"I'm still committed to this journey and working through whatever issues we may be confronted with," said B-CU interim president Hubert Grimes.

Grimes' comments were in response to protesters that converged on the campus 24 hours earlier, demonstrating outside the school’s White Hall chanting “Hail Mary,” a reference to the school’s founder, Mary McLeod Bethune.

“Everybody needs to be gone,” said student Norma Bland. “We need to clean house.”

“Something needs to be changed immediately because this is not how a school is supposed to be,” said student Ian Allen. “We are here to learn, to get everything together as far as our careers. It’s going just the opposite.”

The school is dealing with financial and academic issues that could impact its accreditation.

BCU trustee and WFTV legal analyst Belvin Perry sent a letter to board chairwoman Michelle Carter Scott last week accusing the board of procedural violations when it passed a resolution putting in new financial protections limiting the president’s authority. Perry worries the resolution could cost the school its accreditation.

“[It would] spell a death knell for the university,” Perry said.

In January, BCU filed suit against its former president, claiming bribery and corruption over the campus’ newest residence hall.

The suit claims more than $12 million of improper payments were secretly built into the dorm’s contract. The building’s final coast was $13 million more than expected.

Read: State places B-CU nursing program on probation over low licensing test scores

Then, in August, four board members resigned after the Alumni Association claimed the school is in debt more than $120 million. Its bond rating was downgraded to junk status.

B-CU President Hubert Grimes discussed the future of the school during a press conference on Tuesday.

He said he has no plans of leaving and should have more clarity once the board meets Thursday.

He said he remains optimistic that the probation of the school’s accreditation will be lifted and the school’s finances will be restores.

Grimes is expected meet with the board Thursday to see what direction it wants to take to get the school's finances back on track.

He also offered to release one of audits done of the school once the board approves it.

Cox Media Group