COB sources confirmed last night that the selection process was in shambles and that the only two contenders left in the race are Rhonda Chipman-Johnson and Pandora Johnson.<\/p>\n
“It seems like we’re back to square one with this situation, because if he didn’t accept the offer and Hodder didn’t, then the college is still without a credible president,” the source said.<\/p>\n
Dr McPhee, the Middle Tennessee State University President, was only approached about the position at COB after Ms Hodder decided not to leave McGill University in Montreal, Canada, sources revealed.<\/p>\n
But after taking seven days to consider the six-figure offer, Bahamian-born Dr McPhee felt the time was not right to return home. The 55-year-old is considered one of the top university presidents in the United States.<\/p>\n
“Many people don’t know about him, but Sidney McPhee is a very prominent scholar in the US and is ranked in the top circles of educated black men in the US.”<\/p>\n
Dr McPhee’s decision is yet another blow for COB. The college was rocked to its very foundations a year ago, when Dr Rodney Smith was caught up in a plagiarism scandal and was forced to quit as president.<\/p>\n
Since then, COB has struggled to find the right candidate. Up until three weeks ago, Ms Hodder appeared to be the prime contender, despite lacking a PhD.<\/p>\n
She was considered an accomplished fund-raiser with excellent connections at government and collegial levels in Canada.<\/p>\n
The initial controversy was sparked at the college three months ago at a general meeting after Ms Hodder was introduced as a presidential candidate, joining COB Acting President Drs Rhonda Chipman-Johnson and Vice President of Research, Planning & Development Pandora Johnson. Over 150 COB faculty and staff members walked out of the meeting after College Council Chairman Franklyn Wilson invited Ms Hodder onto the stage to address them. <\/p>\n
An uproar ensued after two stakeholder bodies claimed that the candidates were not being given equal assessments, with Ms Hodder being perceived as the Council’s favourite candidate. <\/p>\n
COB students initially said they had no doubts about Ms Hodder’s qualifications, but were offended by the council’s “indiscreet” actions. <\/p>\n
The situation was further exacerbated after the Union of Tertiary Educators in The Bahamas and COBUS rallied with hundreds of students at Rawson Square during a meeting of the House of Assembly. Resistance to Ms Hodder’s candidacy and qualifications grew after it was reported that she did not hold a PhD (Doctor of Philosophy) degree, despite her academic background. <\/p>\n
Following protests and walkouts by staff and students of the college, Ms Hodder returned to Canada and told the COB council she was no longer interested in heading the institution. <\/p>\n
Both qualified Hodder and McPhee’s rejection of the “coveted” post now leaves the nation’s top tertiary institution in a fickle position, in the midst of its preparations to become a university.<\/p>\n
By: VIRAJ PERPALL, The Nassau Guardian<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sydney McPhee has turned down the chance to be the next president of The College of The Bahamas (COB) – less than a month after firm favourite Janyne Hodder refused the job.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-249680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-headlines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249680\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}