Students at Bethune-Cookman University are calling on five trustees to resign, after the board refused to hire the school’s interim president as its permanent leader.
William Berry had served as interim university president since July 2023. Four members of the board of trustees voted against hiring him as the permanent president. One abstained from the vote.
Trustees Jennifer Adams, Jeffrey Branch, Deveron Gibbons, and Courtney Rhodes voted against and Joyours “Pete” Gamble abstained.
Their actions are in direct opposition to two search committees and a student committee that all recommended Berry for president.
Then on Friday, trustees voted out Belvin Perry, Jr. as board chair.
He was a supporter of Berry as permanent university president. Perry Jr. said a complaint is being filed with The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission, which is the accreditation board for Southern universities over the board’s actions, which he says hurt the school.
“Enrollment increased at Bethune Cookman by 24%, fundraising was up. They had begun to tackle longstanding deferred maintenance issues. The students in this new class and other students were extremely satisfied,” said Perry. “He would come out among the students and the vast majority of the faculty supported Dr Berry. The alumni supported Dr Berry.”
Perry said he’s worried about how the decision to not permanently hire Berry as president and ensuing student protests on campus will impact the school’s progress.
For example, some incoming freshman may reconsider going to the HBCU because of the bad press.
He said in terms of the board’s next steps, they’ll likely restart the search process, which has already been ongoing for months, even though Berry is one of the most qualified presidential candidates the school has ever had.
“In my opinion, in my opinion alone, they have some hidden agenda. And want someone that will do their bidding. Now that's just my opinion,” said Perry.

Interim president William Berry has been with B-CU since August 2015. He started as a tenured full professor for the Department of Mass Communications. By 2021, he was named Senior Vice President and Provost of Bethune-Cookman University.
Before he came to B-CU he was on the faculty of the University of Illinois from 1991 to 2011 in the departments of Advertising, Journalism, Latino Studies, Media Studies, and the Institute of Communications Research.
And before that, he was an award-winning journalist and editor for several publications, including the senior staff editor of Ebony and managing editor of Jet.
As interim, Berry led the university that saw a surge in applications and freshman commitments, an almost 9% uptick in applications in 2024, with 74% more students committing to attend the university in the fall.
The school also received a historic over $1 million grant to renovate an academic building and football complex on campus, and other buildings that will be used to provide “academic support, meeting and office space, recruiting, athletic locker rooms and other similar purposes to support student athletes.”
The Berry years follow protests that rocked the campus in 2023. Students protested unsafe living conditions on campus and the failed hire of NFL Hall of Famer Ed Reed as football coach.
On Friday, students protested the board at its meeting, calling for the five trustees to resign, and for the former chair Belvin Perry, Jr. to be reinstated.
No trustees resigned Friday. In a statement B-CU said, the board elected new leadership including a new chair.