Dear Board of Trustee Members:

Paine College is in the education business, and as Board members, each of you have the fiduciary responsibility of providing the President with guidance and direction to meet the established short-term and long-term goals of the institution. The President should be presenting to each of you a plan of action to meet the institutional short-term and long-term goals. If these goals are not met, the President ultimately needs to be held accountable. Tasks can be delegated by leaders, but the ultimate responsibility of completing those tasks still remains with the President. Evidently, the high turnover indicates that Dr. Bradley has been able to downward delegate his responsibilities and not be held accountable for the downward spiral of Paine College.

When a new member is brought into the Board, that Trustee should be provided with the requisite information to add value, assess performance and make recommendations accordingly. Each Trustee member should have a copy of the Board’s Policy & Procedures, Board Governance, Dr. Bradley’s contract, short-term and long-term Board approved plans to meet short-term and long-term goals, and any correspondence from the Department of Education, SACSCOC, auditors, . . . that will impact Paine College. At each Board meeting, the President should be giving you a progress report on meeting the established goals. If you are not provided this information, your ability to provide the President with guidance and direction and assess the President’s performance is severely compromised.

Unfortunately, this information has not been provided to the Paine Board of Trustees. Without this website, the Paine community would not even know who are the Trustee members. This pervasive lack of transperancy at the highest level will lead to the ultimate demise of Paine College. The leadership has established a culture that enables secrecy, no accountability and intimidation. Trustee members who have not attended a meeting in years is sorrowful. In essence, this is black on black exploitation that will sadly lead to the legacy of a great institution such as Paine College to its eventual demise, and best case, a shadow of its former self. My prayer is that each of you will have the courage to ask for this information, and more importantly, bring in new leadership. Six years is adequate time for any leader to prove themselves, and in any corporate environment, Dr. Bradley would have been dismissed years ago. This will give you as leaders time to reinvent the leadership structure at Paine College and bring in leadership that is highly competent and cares.

Sincerely,

A Concerned HBCU Advocate