COB president Rodney Smith has returned to The Bahamas and could meet with the College Council as early as this week to determine his fate.
Dr Smith has been the topic of intense scrutiny after admitting to plagiarising an address he made in May.
“He has been released from hospital,” COB Council chairman Franklyn Wilson said yesterday. “He is back in the country.”
Mr Wilson added that Dr Smith was recuperating but had still not fully recovered from a surgical procedure he received while in Florida. He did not disclose the nature of the president’s operation, however.
“We [the COB Council] will be meeting with him shortly,” the chairman revealed.
Dr Smith reportedly checked himself into and out of a local hospital and then had himself admitted to a Florida hospital two weeks ago. He had checked into hospital just as an advisory panel investigating his act of plagiarism had handed down its findings to the Council.
The Council declined to hand down its ruling on Dr Smith’s job while he remained in hospital.
Last month Dr Smith admitted he plagiarised parts of a speech by John Sexton, president of New York University, in an address to the COB Honours convocation. The advisory panel, which comprises local and international experts, was convened in June, after repeated calls for Dr Smith’s job.
The controversy surrounding the scandal deepened last week when Mr Wilson launched a scathing attack on the press, urging the media to back off, be more responsible and concentrate on more newsworthy stories.
An angry Mr Wilson blamed certain sections of the press for “the feeding frenzy” surrounding Dr Smith.
COB Council secretary Patricia Glinton οΎ– Meicholas has assured The Guardian that the College of The Bahamas’ quest for university status and its preparation for the upcoming school was moving swiftly ahead despite Dr Smith’s absence.
By: Raymond Kongwa, The Nassau Guardian
