Fight over historic school's future

WILBERFORCE, Ohio (WDTN) - Students and faculty upset with the direction of Wilberforce University held a protest Tuesday outside of the school's Founders' Day celebration.

"The students are tired," says Freshman Class President DeAndre Dearinge. "They're tired of the management of this university. We need to see change."

But the calls for change were too loud for some.

A former adjunct professor at Wilberforce, Dr. David Evans, was led away in handcuffs, accused of stirring up the students.

"All I said was Hardaway must go and everybody started chanting and then they arrested me," Evans says.

Wilberforce President Patricia Hardaway admitted to 2 NEWS that the university has its issues, calling the school's finances "fragile", but she says she's done what she can to fix the declining enrollment, crumbling dorms and faculty concerns that triggered the protests today and a few months ago and have some still questioning the university's future.

"Wilberforce University has faced the challenges head on and has made headway in resolving some of those challenges," Hardaway says.

Hardaway had the same message for the crowd at Founders' Day, which celebrated the university's 157th anniversary, but few heard it.

The many empty seats were a result of the student boycott and protest.

But of the alumni there, they haven't given up hope.

"Wilberforce University has the germ of immortality," says Class of '38 graduate Dr. Jamye Coleman Williams. "Nothing that is going on now or will go on in the future will really kill us."

Others, like many current faculty, aren't so confident.

"Unless there's a real change in leadership and a real concern by the Board of Trustees, the future of Wilberforce is not strong at this stage," says Faculty President Richard Deering.

So the two sides remain divided by more than just a doorway with the future of their university somewhere in the middle.

"In the church, we say trouble don't last always," says Trustee Pastor Earl Harris.