In the face of the latest round of controversy over the selection of a new president for the College of The Bahamas and amid new claims of "union busting," members of the COB Council yesterday defended their decision to introduce Canadian Janyne Hodder as a possible candidate.
It was a move that sparked an outcry from some students and faculty who claim that the selection process for the top post is flawed, and follows the resignation of the college’s former president Dr. Rodney Smith, who left COB after a plagiarism debacle.
Ms. Hodder has since withdrawn from the candidacy as a result of the strong protests by members of the COB Student Union [COBUS] and members of the Union of Tertiary Educators of The Bahamas [UTEB]. At one point, students marched on Parliament Square and demanded the resignation of the Council’s chairman, Franklyn Wilson.
Yesterday, UTEB president Jennifer Dotson told The Bahama Journal that the Council had "ulterior motives," claiming that under Ms. Hodder’s presidency, Bishop’s University in Canada had one of the "biggest strikes" in its history.
Ms. Dotson said the union would not back down from its position, that faculty and students should be more involved in important decisions at the college, and have voted unanimously not to send a representative with a COB delegation that is reportedly travelling to Montreal in a move to have Ms. Hodder reconsider her withdrawal.
"We are not fighting against the Council’s decision, the Council has a right to make a decision. We have a right to protest and we will let the public know that the Council has an ulterior motive for bringing [Ms. Hodder] in," said Ms. Dotson.
The council’s deputy chairman, Jerome Fitzgerald, said the council’s decision to recruit Ms. Hodder was very much in-line with the hiring processes of other large institutions.
"When you look at the process [of selecting] a president, CEO or head of any large institution, normally this person is recruited, not someone who has put in an application," Mr. Fitzgerald said yesterday on Love 97’s Issues of the Day.
"In the case of Dr. Smith, there was no application put in. He was recruited by the Council and was asked to come down for an interview. This is the normal course, it’s not a question of applying," he said, adding that the Council may have been at fault for not explaining how the process works.
Dr. Earl Cash, COB Council member, said that after the appointment of Dr. Smith who was also introduced to faculty and staff, certain stakeholders commented that they wanted to be more involved in the selection process.
Dr. Cash also pointed out that the two local candidates for the top post – acting president Dr. Rhona Chipman-Johnson and Dr. Pandora Johnson – went through vigorous meetings with various college entities.
And that the suggestion to approach Ms. Hodder was taken up at the Council level and it was agreed that she should be brought to The Bahamas for an interview, although not everyone on the Council agreed that the matter was discussed.
Mr. Fitzgerald said it was not a question of whether "something was wrong" with the local candidates, who he said have "served the college very well."
"In our drive to take to take [the college] to university status there were some concerns and questions raised by stakeholders. It was thought that the new president should have experience running a university, and there are certain administration standards that need to be met to get that level so it was suggested that we look at persons [who fit that description]," he said.
Dr. Cash said that while there was also the option of hiring a consultant to work alongside one of the local candidates, it was thought that the appointment of someone with international experience would serve as a transition while a Bahamian was trained to take over the post.
When Ms. Hodder, the vice-principal of the prestigious McGill University in Canada, was introduced as a presidential candidate at a meeting earlier this 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 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 critics who complained that Ms. Hodder did not have a PhD, the Council simply said that if she was qualified enough to hold leadership positions at such prestigious universities in Canada, she was qualified to lead COB.
But despite the objections, Council members say that they are pushing ahead with their efforts to find a new president in time for the 2006-2007 academic year, and are considering the best course of action to persuade Ms. Hodder to reconsider her withdrawal.
"The Council has to go about its job of finding a new president," said Dr. Cash. "We will do that. We have to do what we are supposed to do and look after [the college’s] best interests."
