#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Bethune-Cookman University Town Hall

Episode Date: February 4, 2023

2.3.2023 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Bethune-Cookman University Town Hall  Today Roland Martin will be live from Dayton Beach, Florida, streaming from Hope Fellowship Church. Roland will be speaking with Students, Faculty, Staff, Alumni, and the community about the recent firing of Ed Reed and issues on Bethune-Cookman's Campus.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. Brought to you by AARP and the recording studios. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 3-3-3-2023. Roland Martin, Unfiltered on the Black Star Network, broadcasting live from Hope Fellowship Church in Daytona Beach, Florida.

We are, over the next couple of hours, we'll be talking about Bethune-Cookman University, the issues that have been taking place on this campus, and hearing from students as well as from alumni. We also will hear from Interim President Dr. Drake as well. What is the future? Also, new football coach? Has one been hired? We'll answer all of those questions as coming up next.

It is time for us to bring the funk on Rollerball Unfiltered on the Blackstone Network. Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the piss, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's rolling

Best belief he's knowing Putting it down from sports to news to politics With entertainment just for kicks He's rolling It's Uncle Roro, y'all It's rolling, marching Rolling with rolling now Yeah, yeah It's Rollin' Martin Yeah, yeah Rollin' with Rollin' now

Yeah, yeah He's funky, he's fresh, he's real The best you know, he's Rollin' Martin Now Martin Martez! present and the future of Bethune-Cookman University. Of course, all this controversy started when a former coach who actually was never really hired as coach, Ed Reed, really sparked a lot of this discussion in terms of the status of the university. Of course, he was not retained or hired by the university to be the head football coach. Students and also football players were still believing in him, wanting him to be hired.

But they said, no, they're moving in a whole new direction. It was also what we've done over the past couple of weeks, really, has been talking about what's been happening at this institution. One of the most revered HBCUs. And let me be real clear off the top, because there's a whole bunch of people out here who love running their mouths. And y'all know I got no problem jacking people up so when when people say oh you're trying to tear our school down and tear hbcus down and you didn't go to a hbcu well you don't complain when somebody cuts you a check who didn't go to hbcu this is about improving and building black institutions i told you in dr king's book where do we go from here chaos of community he said there are four

institutions at a prime position to liberate black america he said the negro church we're in a whole fellowship church here uh in detainment beach to Remember our first location, Greater Phillip, they actually canceled our town hall, but y'all know we were not playing around. We found one less than 24 hours later. So we appreciate Bishop allowing us to be here. Give it up. And so there are folks who are saying,

oh, you shouldn't be talking about this because you didn't go to one. Well, if you don't like it, you should start your own show. But MLK, so there are four institutions, the Negro Church, the Negro Press, Negro Fraternities and Sororities, and Negro Professional and Business Organizations. What he said about the Negro Press, he said, maintain your militancy and not fall for the conservative. And so when you're in black owned media, our job in black owned media is not to be always positive. Our job is to be truthful. And so if there are things that are happening, y'all know my motto has always been, if you do good, I'll talk about you. If you do bad, I'll talk about you. At the end of the day, I'm going to talk about you.

And that's exactly what it should be. And so what our responsibility when it comes to our institution is demanding accountability, demanding excellence, and not accepting what is less than. And so when we were sitting here having a conversation with Dr. Drake, when he invited me to come to campus, I readily accepted. And I said to him, let's have a town hall on the campus with students, alumni, the board, bring everybody together. Well, that was later rescinded. No problem. Look, and I fully expected that to happen. So we always had a plan B. And so we are here not to sit here and tear down Bethune-Cookman,

but to actually say how do we make it better? How do we fulfill the vision of Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune? How do we sit here and confront the challenges that are facing HBCUs, but also strengthen them? Because the one thing that keeps driving me crazy when we discuss our black institutions, I'm tired of us having what I call survive conversations. We always talk about surviving. We make do with little and it's always survive. No, I want us to be having thriving conversations. I want us fighting for our institutions to look as good or even better than Florida State or the University of Florida. Which means that we have to use our collective power to be able to do so. So for the next two hours, we're going to talk with folks who are assembled here. And we'll talk about some of the issues and the challenges but not just

Simply focus on the past but also lay out a path forward because you have dissension going on you have The university soon the Alumni Association is being disbanded. You've seen alumni Donations go down a tremendous you've seen people who say I want to help you having students who are complaining about conditions in dorms and food and complain about those things. That shouldn't be what's going on. Students should not have to be protesting on HBCUs for better conditions. They really are here to get an education. And so that's what we want to move forward. It's really focusing on those issues. And so I hope you let everybody know what's going on here. And I'll make this last point.

And I appreciate mainstream media being here. And I did an interview earlier. But here's the thing that we have to understand. And this is why black-owned media matters. And that is, we ain't here for a 90-second soundbite. This costs us thousands of dollars to be here. Ain't no sponsor paying for us to be here. But the reason we're here, because these are the types of stories that we must be talking about.

And all the folks out there who call themselves new media or whatever they want to call themselves, if all you're doing is talking about what somebody else is doing, well, then you ain't legit. What this is about is for us as African-Americans using our collective wealth, our collective knowledge to be able to improve our institutions and make them better, not just for us, but for our children's children. Because if somebody else 50, 60, 70, 80, 100 years ago did not do what they did, we could not even have this conversation today. So with that, we're going to go to a break.

We're going to, again, have this conversation. We're going to start with the interview with Dr. Drake because I want folks to hear our conversation, to hear what they say is being done to improve, and then we'll be able to use it as a basis for our conversation here at Hope Fellowship Church in Daytona Beach. So again, got to go to a break. Glad to have everyone here.

Folks, you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered Church in Daytona Beach. So again, got to go to a break. Glad to have everyone here. Folks, you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered live in Daytona Beach on the Black Star Network. Don't forget, download the Black Star Network app, Apple phone, Android phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV. Support us in our efforts by joining our Bring the Funk fan club. Check your money orders.

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The Black Tape with me, Dr. Greg Carr, here on the Black Star Network. Every week, we'll take a deeper dive into the world we're living in. Join the conversation only on the Black Star Network. We're all impacted by the culture, whether we know it or not. From politics to music and entertainment, it's a huge part of our lives, and we're going to talk about it every day

right here on The Culture with me, Faraji Muhammad, only on the Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media and be scared. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home, you dig? Hi, I'm Dr. Jackie Hood-Martin, and I have a question for you. Ever feel as if your life is teetering and the weight and pressure of the world is consistently on your shoulders?

Well, let me tell you, living a balanced life isn't easy. Join me each Tuesday on Black Star Network for a balanced life with Dr. Jackie. We'll laugh together, cry together, pull ourselves together, and cheer each other on. So join me for new shows each Tuesday on Black Star Network, A Bal, unfiltered. All right, folks, welcome back to Rolling Mark Unfiltered here at the Daytona Beach Hope Fellowship Church for our Bethune-Clifton Town Hall. So earlier today, as soon as I landed, went right to campus and I interviewed the interim president, Dr. Drake, about the issues that we've been talking about on this show for the last 10 days or so. And so here is part one of our conversation that will set up the rest of our discussion here at the church. President Drake, you've had quite an eventful, I would say, last seven to 10 days. I want to start first off with communicating with your students.

There's one thing that I've heard from so many students saying, not enough communication, not enough transparency. How are you dealing with that so they know what's going on on their campus? Yeah, yeah. I would say that, you know, I would say the students in some ways are correct. We need to communicate more. A lot of things going behind the scenes, but what we've done is we've decided to create, and this is with taking the voices of the SGA and student government and other student leaders and saying, okay, let's design a way to ensure that the communication from the administration and anything, quite frankly, is consistent. Last night, we held our first session with our freshman class. We're subsequently

going to do that with freshmen, sophomore, juniors, and seniors. That's part one. Part two is actually to have the subject matter experts for each of our major areas of concern, housing, campus safety, et cetera, so that they get the subject matter experts in front of them and not just hear them, but also create an action item list, which is what we did last night. You talk about those areas. One of the areas that, whether it's Bethune-Cookman, whether it's any institution I've been dealing with, folks talk about food services. You've had some students who posted videos of mold and things along those lines. What have you said to your personnel about what they have to do?

Because any time a video gets posted, a photo gets posted, look, that can take off. It can go viral. And so what have you communicated to staff? Right, right. Yeah. So, you know, the thing that I'm getting everybody used to is that we live in a digital world now. We don't live in an analog world.

That means something can happen in a second, and the next second is viral, potentially. So what I said to staff is simply this. We have a third-party partner, and Sodexo is our third-party partner. They actually do our food service and dining, and they also do part of our facilities leadership as well. We said to them, look, you need to be more careful and more diligent about that. And, in fact, I was just on the phone this morning at a 1030 meeting to discuss not only that issue,

but any other issue with respect to what we receive from vendors. For example, prepackaged goods of any kind. So bread might come prepackaged. Broccoli might come prepackaged. You need to take the extra step of checking it. If you're getting food or vegetables, they might come pre-washed. Open up the bag and wash them again. If you got bread, look at the rack, make sure the rack matches the date that it's supposed to be eaten by, and not have some bread that might have been old, that might have been delivered from the vendor that you didn't check. So what kind of system are you putting in place to ensure that's happening? So I've had that conversation, and I feel very good about the leadership of that, particularly

in the dining hall. That said, you know, you got to inspect what you expect. So I'm going to be doing a regular check with them once a week. And we're going to have a session with their people to ensure that no hiccups. And if there are, I want to know what we're doing. Speaking of inspection, housing, same thing. And so I've had folks sending me photos and videos saying, oh, my goodness, we're seeing cleaning crews. We're seeing folks going building the building. And so explain what has been happening there in terms of assessing facilities. Yeah. So we started about seven months ago when I took the job as interim president of assessing our facilities.

Of course, what happened in the middle of that was two hurricanes. When Ian happened, we were the first campus to evacuate. Some people thought that was foolish, but if you look sort of hindsight, it was a great decision. That said, we had to deal with the aftermath of that. About $6 million worth of damage across the campus, depending upon how you add up the numbers. And so there was a lot of things left in the wake. And what we've been doing now is... That's $6 million. Did you get any federal assistance for that? Not yet. But we've applied to FEMA, and they're walking us through the process. But quite frankly, we have gotten some support from a lot of people who care about the campus and care about the

university. So, you know, we've been very blessed about that. But of course, you know, it takes a lot to do, right? So we actually started assessing each of our facilities in a more comprehensive way. So it's not just what happened post-hurricane, but what were the conditions before the hurricane? What are we doing about it? What can we do now cosmetically? So that's sort of what's the first priorities that we can do. And then what do we need to do along the range? So in that assessment, it's age, building condition, not only the age and building condition, but what is the things that might be harmful to our students or might compromise the safety? So we've asked ourselves a number of questions about each facility. So we

have a base list now of about 60. We've got over 100 buildings on campus. So now we're really getting aggressive about doing that. And the board has been very supportive about making sure that we begin to prioritize these facilities in a really aggressive way. And I'm very pleased with that. I couldn't be more pleased with the support that we're getting. One of the things that I had some parents reach out to talk about, again, locks on dorm room doors, not working properly, shower heads, and then also dealing with rodents or roaches and things along those lines. And so have you been also examining at examining your reporting procedures and not just

in terms of dorm folks, but also what are you saying to students about how they use the facilities? Because that obviously impacts things as well. Yeah, listen, you hit the big nail on the head that I talked about last night. And in fact, I was so I was so proud of our freshman class president because she called out her classmates. She said, hey, you told the administration they need to be here to talk to you. Where are you? What are you saying? And what I said to them was, look, we talk about accountability, as you know, or you may not know, but I want to share it with you, is that our core values are around first. That's faith. That's integrity. That's respect. That's service. And that's thirst for knowledge.

So when you are, you know, doing something in your room, whether that's letting people in the dorm who shouldn't be there, whether that's propping open a back door, which keeps your, you know, your roommates and the other people in that building unsafe, or it's, you know, using any kind of substance that is banned from the university because we have a no alcohol, no drug policy and no tolerance on both of those. If you're doing those things, you compromise our ability to do things to help you. So we try to, we're talking about first and we're creating sort of this idea of going back to our roots called BCU. We are first. We take those four, you know, those key core values and we build things in there like, for example, respect. Well, I don't want somebody living in a place that's uninhabitable.

If we've got mold or mildew or things in it, let us know that because some of we can see some of we can't. But if it is there, then we want to take care of that, because if we say we live to our core values as the administration, we got to hold you accountable to do the same thing. Respect means respect for you, your roommate, respect for the other students in your facility. Those are going to be the way in which we also communicate to our student body things like the progress of our work across campus. So we use DCU We Are First as a way to frame how we continuously keep them abreast of what's happening on campus and what progress we're making. So you're meeting, obviously, so you're meeting with your students. How are you repairing this fractious relationship with your alumni? This lawsuit is not a good thing. Again, you've got alumni that are supportive of the university no matter

what, but then you have others who are saying, look, it's way too much friction and all. So what is happening there you have others who are saying, look, it's way too much friction. And so what is happening there? Because certainly, you know, when you talked about going from 12 percent to 1 percent of giving, I mean, that's huge. Yeah. So, you know, I would say, you know, Roland, that's probably, you know, one of the thorniest issues that we continue to contend with, which is, you know, how do we bring community together when we have major disagreement about the community? A little bit of context around this whole litigation and what it means is that you, you know, we had a longstanding National Alumni Association.

It's been around a long time. They've evolved over time and two different models have evolved in terms of how they engage with the university. In the latter years, what's happened is you've found that many of the university chapters that were assigned, and as you know, when you have an authorized alumni association, they carry our EIN number. They carry our nonprofit. They're essentially an arm of the university. And what we discovered is that much of the funds that we believed needed to come directly to the university simply weren't, we weren't able to substantiate. And in addition to that, because the tax receipt for those who gave needs to go to those people,

if we can't substantiate where it came from, we can't exactly give a tax receipt for those who gave needs to go to those people. If we can't substantiate where it comes from, we can't exactly give a tax receipt for that. Well, that wasn't the worst part. The worst part was that some of our alumni decided, well, if we're not going to carry and do the way we used to do it, then we'll create our own. And I have not a problem with people saying, you know, we believe in Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune. We want to continue to give scholarships to students. But you can't say you're then an alumni, official alumni association of the university because we own the marks and the trademarks and the seals. And the moment that you start using those things is the moment that we have to be in litigation to stop you from doing so. And that is the crux and part of our disagreement. Now, I'll grant you, I would love to see how we get this resolved.

Unfortunately, because it's in litigation, we're going to have to let it play out. But rest assured, we are inviting every alumni, regardless of what side of the fence you're on, to join us in trying to do the most important thing. The main thing is our students. Whether you like someone, you don't like a policy, you don't like something that the university is doing, that's one thing. But when you do that and it doesn't benefit the student, it doesn't really give the student the identity because every time those kinds of things happen, they compromise the credential that students are practically

giving their life away mortgaging part of it because of the debt they're going into. And you can't cheapen that degree. And every time this kind of thing happens, it hurts those young people. Hold on a second. I'm going to take a break and come back. I'm going to pick up on that in just a moment. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Blackstar Network. I'm Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach, and my new show, Get Wealthy,

focuses on the things that your financial advisor and bank isn't telling you, but you absolutely need to know. So watch Get Wealthy on the Blackstar Network. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution.

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Set up goals. Don't worry about a setback. Just save up and stack up to reach them. Let's put ourselves in the right position. Pre-game to greater things. Start building your retirement plan at thisispretirement.org. Brought to you by AARP and something like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media and be scared.

It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home, you dig? On a next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, a relationship that we have to have. We're often afraid of it and don't like to talk about it. That's right. We're talking about our relationship with money. And here's the thing. Our relationship with money oftentimes determines whether we have it or not.

The truth is you cannot change what you will not acknowledge. Balancing your relationship with your pocketbook. That's next on A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, here at Blackstar Network. President Drake, before we go to the break, we're talking about alumni. So you're meeting with students. Are you looking to do something similar across the country with alumni to bring them up to speed? Because, yeah, look, the lawsuit is still going on, but surely there is some sort of pathway for them to also still be engaged. So what is happening there? Yeah, good question. So I've been doing a series of fireside chats around the country and they have been we've been well received. Our director of alumni affairs has done an

outstanding job of sort of redirecting some of that energy into what we can do in the future together. And next week, we'll be holding a national alumni town hall for all alumni. The only thing you have to do is prove that you're an alum. So we're going to have a system by checking and making sure your name's available to us and our alumni roster. But if you are, you'll come in, and I will walk them through the same thing I'm talking to our students about. They'll have a chance using a QR code to actually ask their questions in advance. And then we'll have, of course, the opportunity in the chat to answer more questions that will be moderated.

But I want to talk to them. I want to hear what they have to say. Not in a gripe session, of course, but in a session that really we can have some constructive conversation about what has taken place, what the future can look like, because, you know, I'm kind of one of those people that I love to focus on what the future looks like. Got to deal with the present. You can't ignore that. But the future of our university and the future of many of our students is based on how well we begin to lay the groundwork for them. And the more time we spend on individual agendas, it's hard to focus on their agenda. And their agenda is making sure they have the credentials to go out and compete in them.

So you're talking the future. So I'm traveling yesterday, and I see a tweet that you have a new football coach. And then all of a sudden the tweet disappears. So what the heck is going on? What's that about, right? Do you have a new coach or not? So we are really excited about

our new candidate that we are about to hire. The only thing that we're being careful about is that it does have to be ratified. His contract has to be ratified by the board. But barring that, we do have a new football coach, which we're being careful about is that it does have to be ratified. His contract has to be ratified by the board. But barring that, we do have a new football coach, which we're really, really, really excited about. He's a great guy.

And he has the Christian ethos in his blood. He's an alum. And we're really excited about him. But all of that will become more public next week. And we want to hold an official press conference. And we know that once he sent his tweet out and then once it was on Facebook, it was over. So now that the cat's out of the bag, now we have to say, okay, but we really do want to have a formal announcement of his coming

and give him the spotlight that a new head coach deserves. So how are you getting control of that to where folk understand procedures, practices? Look, I get it. There's someone who we've been working on a show on my network who posted on social media. And I was like, did you see me posted? I did. And so that that also is a part of institutional standards, practices, and procedures. Yeah, yeah. So, you know, one of our areas of growth is, again, recognizing we're in a digital world now. And what that simply means for us is we've got to have people to monitor digital behavior, but we need practices and policies that we need to share with our employees when they come to work here

and also those who aren't here already, about how social media needs to be used and how it's governed by the institution. We haven't, quite frankly, haven't been aggressive in that. And we're going to get a lot more granular and precise about what we ask and expect our employees and our students to do. And with all the stuff that has happened, has this also caused you to be even more thorough in looking at and raising the question, do you have the personnel needed to go to the next level?

There was a CEO who once said, the people that made me a $500 million a year corporation can't take me to a billion. Yeah. And this is one of the hardest things for a lot of people coming in saying, you know what? You're a nice person. You've been great. But actually, it's time for you to go because you can't elevate the institution.

Yeah. Are you looking at building? Are you looking at people the same way? Absolutely. And, you know, we just hired a new CFO. We're going to be hiring a new CIO. We want to ensure that we're building a team of professionals who have experience. But more importantly, that they have the forward-thinking capability capability because you're absolutely right. It's one thing to have an idea, but if somebody can't help get you to the next level

to make that idea come to reality, that's not really something you should even focus on. And I think that Bethune-Cookman University came through such a rough time in its history a few years ago. And thankfully, there were some people who really took it to heart to try to ensure that the university got back on stable footing. Well, good news is that we are

on stable footing. We do have a way forward. Now, we've got to build the right team, right people, get the right things in place so we can move forward. And I think this was a wake-up call that we need to move fast. Moving slower is not an option right now. I saw a tweet from several people, including Ed Reed, about one of your football players being suspended. First of all, is that true? And what happened? So he was disciplined. And the discipline really was as a result of— Is he still on scholarship?

To my knowledge, I don't think he's lost his scholarship. Okay. But I do believe that the violations were more around things he was asked not to do, and he did. And that's what the Code of Conduct says here. So, you know, we didn't penalize him, as might have been reported, for speaking out because, trust me, you know, I had 300 students speaking out, and you can't get rid of all them. Nor would I

want to, by the way. I think that it was just a situation where he, it was a judgment call for him. It was a judgment call for his coaches. They made the call. And it was because you had a players-only meeting, as to what? Yeah. They were told not to record. He recorded it? Yeah. And he was asked not to record call. And it was because you had a players-only meeting, they were told not to record, and you recorded it? Yeah, and he was asked not to

record it. And that was because, and by the way, he was admonished by some of his players as well, his teammates. So, you know, look, we gotta have rules. We don't have enough, and sometimes we have too much. I think for that particular event, you know,

we were trying to ensure that it stayed in the family so we could work it through. You know, I don't, I don't, you can't come and call my house nasty and then ask me, can you spend the night? You know, fundamentally, we needed people who were able to focus on what we needed to do for our football team. And the players that were there, those alumni players did a, gosh, I just thank God for them because they were able to come in and talk to the players in a language that I can't speak, but honestly to them. And I'm grateful that we had a great meeting

and we're off to a great start. They're working and once our coach is in place and he begins to assemble the staff, he's a great recruiter, we're going to be fine. Where are you in terms of practice field on the campus? My understanding, you're spending thousands of dollars transporting players back and forth to the stadium as opposed to being on campus and also on campus locker rooms, showers, things on those lines. Status of that?

Yeah, so we have what's called the ATC, which essentially is the Athletic Training Center, which sits at the corner of International Speedway Boulevard and Lincoln Avenue. There is that building and that land behind that building, which is where we want to build that practice field on campus and lockers and showers. We have two adjacent buildings that have not been used that we want to convert so that that also has weight rooms and other kinds of facilities for our athletes. We're going to put up the seed capital for that. What's it going to cost you? We're thinking somewhere about $2 million, but that's sort of a preliminary cost.

We've got a lot of work to do, but we're working on the architectural drawings now. Our goal is to try to have that facility up and running by the end of the summer. But we're excited about that. That's going to be fun for our athletes. And the other thing we can do is we want to keep them from having to cross the street. So we want to be able to make sure that everything's all in one place so when they do cross the street, they're actually going back to their residence. What's the biggest thing that you have learned from this experience? The hiring of Ed Reed, then choosing not to retain him,

and all the controversy that's ensued. I learned a lot of things. I mean, you know, I consider myself to be a lifelong learner. So that means, you know, I never think that I have all the answers to all the questions because I don't. But what I do do believe is that there are some things we could have handled better. I think we should have been ahead of our work and communicated to the campus more about what we were doing with our facilities. It could have cut down on a lot of stuff. I think that while hiring Ed Reed, and not hiring actually, but in negotiations with him,

he was a fantastic player, and I think that his intentions were good. I don't think that he wanted to harm the program or the university. I think that it's just not a good fit, and sometimes you've got to get ahead of that. I wish we would have been a little bit more ahead of that. Third thing is that transparency and excessive communication sometimes works better. Sometimes you don't think you need to communicate when you really do need to communicate. So things like ensuring that our financials, people understanding that we're not only solvent and in the black, but that, you know, the CARES Act funding and the money that we were given by the federal government was stewarded well. And you made that public? Yes.

60% of that money went to students. It's on your website? It's on our website. But we've been thinking about how do we break it down so the average person can understand. And we're working on that because it's not just about putting it on our site. We've got to say, okay, we just spent $66 million. 60% of that went to students and to repay their debts so they could stay in school. Many of them were carrying forward debt and we wanted to pay that off and use that as funds. And the rest of it went to actually instruction, new faculty or existing faculty creating the

programming that allowed our curriculum to expand. Those are things that I wish we would have done sooner. Didn't think about it, but now we know the importance of doing it. Last question. There is someone out there who's saying, hmm, I'm not sure if I want to send my child to Bethune cooking. Or the alumni who's saying, I'm not sure I want to send my student, send my child to Bethune cooking or the alumni who's saying, I'm not sure I want to send my money. Um,

what do you say to that person? Both of those people. So the first person I'd say is the parent is, you know, before you make the decision, talk to us, come see our campus, spend some time with our admissions people.

See if the culture here for your daughter or son makes sense for your family. Because, you know, you've got to take a look-see. My daughter, I took her to see my alma mater when she was getting ready to go to college, one of my daughters. She looked at the campus, she said,

not doing it, Dad, sorry. I know you want me to be a legacy kid, but this is not what I want to be. She ended up at FAM. So I want them to come and feel the campus for themselves, meet the people, meet this community. Daytona Beach is a welcoming community in this environment that we have, and we want them to feel like this is a place they can be. For the one that says, I don't want to send my money, or I'm not sure I should send my money, I would say, listen, I can't tell you where to send your money, but if you have an interest in investing in

kids that need a future, then there's no better place to invest in here. All right. Well, we'll look forward to see what happens over the next several months and then tell that story as well. Keep us honest. Thank you. All right. Appreciate it.

Appreciate it. Thanks a bunch. Thank you. All right. Appreciate it. Appreciate it. Thanks so much. Thank you. All right. When we come back to Hope Fellowship, we'll talk with students here, get their reaction to what the president had to say and talk about the path forward for Bethune-Cookman University. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered at this live community town hall here in Daytona Beach, Florida, right here on the Black Star Network. Thank you for being the voice of Black America. All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media and be scared.

It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? On a next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, a relationship that we have to have. We're often afraid of it and don't like to talk about it. That's right. We're talking about our relationship with money.

And here's the thing. Our relationship with money oftentimes determines whether we have it or not. The truth is you cannot change what you will not acknowledge. Balancing your relationship with your pocketbook. That's next on A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, here at Blackstar Network. Hi, I'm Dr. Jackie Hood-Martin, and I have a question for you.

Ever feel as if your life is teetering and the weight and pressure of the world is consistently on your shoulders? Well, let me tell you, living a balanced life isn't easy. Join me each Tuesday on Black Star Network for Balanced Life with Dr. Jackie. We'll laugh together, cry together, pull ourselves together, and cheer each other on.

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To submit your vote, you will need an email. Only one vote allowed per email. Voting ends on February 10th at 9 p.m. Vote today. Hi, how's it doing? It's your favorite funny girl, Amanda Se hi i'm anthony brown from anthony brown and group therapy lana well and you are watching rolling martin unfiltered i know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun?

Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops call this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that Taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated.

I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg

Glod. And this is season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves.

Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug ban is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill, NHL enforcer Riley Cote, Marine Corps vet, MMA fighter Liz Karamush.

What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Here's the deal. We got to set ourselves up. See, retirement is the long game we gotta make moves and make them early set up goals don't worry about a setback just save up and stack up to reach them let's put ourselves in the right position pre-game to greater things start building your retirement plan at thisispretirement.org. Brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council.

All right. We're supposed to play this thing coming back, but we didn't play it. Now y'all can clap. Go ahead. Don't make me cuss in this church carol don't make me y'all don't come on i look at she over there i i got i got a best friend i got a best friend all right y'all let me introduce our students here folks uh joining us right now on my uh on the far end censoria mckay she's a member of the band a junior here bethune cookman daylon sims daylon sims former mr sophomore uh elect also uh well he's a sophomore and uh maya walker bethune cookman uh a senior as well so give it up for y'all students all right so first of all i did you'd explain the hail mary uh hashtag ed

reed was right hashtag by by belvin shirts y'all have them on here so uh whose idea was that so the idea was it was a collection of students also also alumni um hail mary they had a protest back in 2018, I believe so, 2017. And that was to get a new board of trustees, new president. And they saw very good push to it. So we wanted to pay back off of their success. Also, Ed Reed was right. Ed Reed was right in the fact that we had conditions, that under the conditions on campus

and also that we need change. And by by Belvin basically means we want a whole new board of trustees and we need a whole new member period. And we know that it starts at the top and the top is board of trustees and board chair member period. So we want all of them gone. And we want a new board of trustees where alumni can pick it, students, faculty, and staff can also help out and pick a board of trustees that is for, but don't commit, not for their own pockets.

So I'm going to get to... I'm going to get to the board in a second here, but I do want to talk about something the president did say. Control room, pull up the post that I sent you all. And so this went out yesterday where Coach Woody actually tweeted that he was coming to Bethune-Cookman. And this was the tweet here. It went up on his Facebook page, then Twitter. Well, he had to take it down because he wasn't authorized to post it. And so the president said that they'll be making the announcement next week.

And so either one of you, again, your thoughts on the fact that the university is moving forward, that Ed Reed will not be the head coach here at Bethune-Cookman. They've chosen someone else. Okay, so it's sad to see Ed Reed go because Coach Reed, he wanted to change for us. He saw that Bethune-Cookman needed to change. He wanted to change not for the football team, but for the whole school. So it's sad to see him go, but you know, we have to keep moving on at the end of the day because at the end of the day, the equipment is a business, and you have to keep the business running. I just want to say that when Ed Reed came in, and it wasn't like he had this selfish attitude. It was no what selfish.

It wasn't that, oh, I'm just here strictly for the football team. It was really just, I'm here for the school. It's time's time to turn things around like you're here to make a change and for him to go is just it's sad so like with the new football coach coming in is really gonna have to you're gonna have to pick back up um off where ed re left off at and if you can't do that then it's just on to the next person. When you, do you believe that the comments made by Ed, do you believe that that gave new life to the student, it empowered folks to be able to freely speak out about what they are concerned about? I mean there were previous

protests in other years, but what I kept hearing from folks saying is that when he made those comments on social media, that it really spurred others to say, you know what, I need to use my voice. Yes, his comments did create a spark in the protests of Hail Mary Part 2. It needed to be said because students have been gone long enough from being unheard by the university. And it was just time to make a change. So one thing about Bethune-Clipman, they hate bad press. So for us to get to them is to go to the media, is to say, hey, we have gold in our dorms, is to say we have rats, we're getting sick by it.

Because how many times do we have to complain for you to do something and nothing is being done? Now, when you say complain, here's what I'm curious about. Who are you complaining to? What is the process? Is there a formal process when it comes to the issue that you're talking about? We complain to maintenance. So people that stay in phase or these different dorms, they complain to maintenance. Right, but you're talking directly to maintenance. What I'm saying is, is it the worker? Is it their

boss? Is it the supervisor? Or is there an administrative person who you're able to communicate with who's directly over there? It's a work form, so we don't know who we're talking to. It's just a form that we send in. It's a form you fill out and sit in. Yes, it's a form that we fill out and that we send. Like Maya said, it is a form that you fill out and you send in, and depending on the severity of it is how the response time is. With mold, for me personally, this being my third year, me putting in a work order for mold, I probably won't see nobody in my room doing something about it until maybe three four weeks almost a whole month because it's always the issue of oh you could take bleach and spray at it and it'll come off but it grows right back

or they come in and paint right over it and cover up the mess that is still there that continuously make people sick um with even with the maintenance coming to fix it um the form that's being put out it's just it's not it's not enough response time like the fastness of it going out and actually having it being done and not just covering up just to cover it up if you look at the various issues, and there are a number of issues that folks have talked about, what would housing be or the conditions in housing be the dominant issue among students? I believe housing would be number one

just because that's our home away from home. We're there most of the time of the year besides our breaks. If we're there for the summer, we're there for the whole summer break. But that's our home away from home. We're there most of the time of the year besides our breaks. Or if we're there for the summer, we're there for the whole summer break. But that's our home away from home. So if we can't live in our home away from home, it's like I might as well just go back home and not come back to school. And our community, we want to get our education. And they want to help make sure our families, our family families are all straight. So we want to make sure we get our education and live a good life you talked about um the

mold issue taking three uh three four four weeks um again that communicating to other folks as well you said folks uh gotten sick i received an email from a parent who talked about their child had to go to the hospital because she had breathing issues as a result. Have you heard that from other students who have been impacted? I have heard that from other students and I've also have dealt with it myself. Even though I'm not, I don't have asthma, I still have gotten sick from the mold because not only does the mold sit on our walls, we shower in it, we breathe in it from the air vents. It literally sits in every crack and crevice in the dorm. So I have heard and I've also experienced it also, being sick just from the mold

and the mildew that builds up in our rooms. So you heard the president talk about they've already inspected 60 of the 100 buildings and they've had crews on campus. First of all, have you seen that in the past 7 to 10 days? Yes. So before you said you was coming to do a town hobby, nobody was really out there cleaning. They were doing their regular cleaning.

Then I say on Monday or even Friday, they got kids in high gear living out every day. They've been cleaning, going from dorm to dorm. You're trying to say we made them do some cleaning. Yeah. They've been going from dorm to dorm, seeing if everybody's okay, saying what do you need done, because they knew you were coming to Plano Cutman. Well, not coming, but you was in the area. You were smiling when I raised that question. Go ahead.

Yes, because I just feel like it shouldn't take all of that. It should not take for us to complain and for us to go to the media for y'all to do what y'all supposed to do y'all know the school is a mess y'all know we got mold in our dorms y'all know these buildings need to be painted just do what you got to do and then we'll be quiet that's just that's just point blank period i want to say that with what she just said some of us and and i'm speaking for me personally, some of us didn't even have the option to stay in a dorm that we wanted to stay in. People who have high GPAs, like 3.0s or higher, they've had to be forced into the honors dorm. I stay in Lee Ryan. And when I say it's been,

it's been a challenge because this is supposed to be an honors dorm. We work hard for our GPAs and we're living in filthy conditions to the point where ceilings are not being fixed. Water is coming in through our ceilings. We have no choice but to stay in there. Like there was no other option. It was strictly, you got this GPA, you got to stay in there and live with it, deal with it. That's how it felt so like what my is that it should have to take all of that to really fix the problem honestly so go ahead and pay back over history said I know in LeBron you got to have any AC for since July so they haven't had any AC since July. Who hasn't had AC? Lee Ryan. It's the Honors

Dorn Building. They haven't had any AC since July. So you said the Honors Building hasn't had air conditioning since July. They have the AC now. I've been in there since July because I stayed on campus for a summer program. And when I got moved into my housing assignment for the school year, I didn't have no air and mind you i have a service animal so imagine living in that being in band practice and coming back into a hot sauna room literally a sauna and it's high hopes of we're going to get this air conditioning fixed we're going to make sure we do this we're going to make sure you do that you giving us high hopes but there's no work being done it's it's a lot of talk but not a lot of work coming behind it um we were talking to

as we were talking about uh that uh and obviously universe was impacted uh by the hurricanes but you have been here you've been here what was it like before the hurricanes, but you have been here, you've been here. What was it like before the hurricanes? Because I mean obviously, I mean I get, look I live, I'm from Houston, I lived through multiple hurricanes, knocking our power out for two weeks and having bad conditions, but did these issues predate the hurricanes that impacted this university? I say yes, because of the fact that even us coming back from the hurricane, there was things put out on social media, things that were said by staff that were, when we come back, XYZ, ABC is going to be fixed because, you know, the effect on the hurricane.

Some, I know for my dorm, Lee Ryan, the back wing of that dorm from the third all the way to the first has been completely, like, affected to the point where people have had to move out because of the damage that came from the hurricane. Other rooms, not so much, but just the fact that you say we're going to have this, we're going to have AC units, we're going to make sure that, you know, certain things are going to be taken care of before we come back. Because we was out for, I think, maybe two, three weeks, two, three weeks at the most. Even with that, the campus was still being, it was still being cleaned up, but it was still enough time for something to be changed. And coming back and there's nothing to be changed.

It's just like, what was y'all doing? And to the dorms, the molded dorms, there was molded dorms before the hurricanes. So in turn, President Drake, he cannot say the hurricanes caused the mold because hurricanes are not caused by the mold. The mold was here before both hurricanes came before them. Even with that, we, and I keep talking about my dorm, but I'm just using it for where I live at. Right, right. Your experience. Personally, even with the no air, with the no air, we ended up begging to get some type of fan.

We didn't get a fan until literally the middle of fall semester, like an actual box fan. It did somewhat help, but we didn't get an actual AC unit, like a portable AC unit in our room until right before Hurricane Ian. And then when we came back it was gone literally it was gone and so as you laid this out what are your parents saying hurry up and get out of there that's what she's telling me. Hurry up and get out of there. You're laughing so clearly. For my parent, it's very much what Maya said. It's time for you to go.

It's time to get up out of there because you shouldn't have to live in your home away from home in that type of condition. You're paying all this money out to the university. And where is the money going for our living conditions? So, yes, my parent, by her being a single mother, and it's frustrating to know that I'm constantly worried about my child's safety, my child's health. You can't sleep like that. You can't as a parent. You can't sleep like that. So, like Maya said, my parent is basically like,

you got to find a way to get up out of there. And you're graduating when? Next spring. So you got a whole year. So what, you trying to get me to come back every week so he can make sure stuff is straight? If you must, please. All right, hold tight one second. We got to go to break folks we

come back we'll continue our conversation uh i do want to uh talk about uh the uh conversation last night that the president had with the freshman class uh and what their plans are communicating uh with the various constituents on the campus folks you're watching a special town hall here community town hall at hope Fellowship Church in Daytona Beach, Florida. This town hall focuses on Bethune-Cookman. We'll be right back on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no.

Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar

company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season One. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated,

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way.

In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne

from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush.

What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content,

subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Here's the deal. We got to set ourselves up. See, retirement is the long game. We got to make moves and make them early. Set up goals. Don't worry about a setback. Just save up and stack up to reach them. Let's put ourselves in the right position. Pre-game to greater things. Start building your retirement plan at thisispretirement.org. Brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council.

Next on The Black Table, with me, Greg Carr. An hour of living history with Dr. Richard Mariba Kelsey, thinker, builder, author, and one of the most important and impactful elders in the African-American community. He reflects on his full and rich life and shares his incomparable wisdom about our past, present, and future. African genius is saying that my uncle was a genius, my brother was a genius, my brother was a genius, my neighbor was a genius.

I think we ought to drill that in ourselves and move ahead rather than believing that I got it. That's next on The Black Table, here on the Black Star Network. Most people think that these television shows that tell stories about who we are as black men, and then they paint these monolithic portraits of us. They think that they're being painted by white people.

And I gotta tell you, there are a whole bunch of black folk that are the creators, the head writers, the directors of all of these shows and that are still painting us as monoliths. The people don't really wanna have this conversation. No, they don't. Hey, I'm Arnaz J. Black TV does matter, dang it.

Hey, what's up, y'all? It's your boy, Jacob Lattimore, and you're now watching Roland Martin right now. Stay woke. All right, folks, welcome back to Hope Fellowship Church here in Daytona Beach, Florida, for our Bethune-Cookman Town Hall. We're talking with some students here. We've got a packed house here of students and alumni and community folks here. And so everybody wave. Everybody wave. All right, glad to see everybody here. And so everybody wave. Everybody wave.

All right. Glad to see everybody here. Glad to see you for this conversation. We played the interview there of President Drake. So I'm curious. So last night, he said they had a meeting with the freshman class. How many folks showed up? Had to be like less than 20.

Now, just, anyone just give me a number. How many freshmen are on this campus? Just give me a roundabout number. Go ahead. The freshman class is the biggest class we have on campus right now. Huh? The biggest class we have on campus right now. Yeah, what?

Five, six hundred? Seven hundred? Oh, like a thousand. So a thousand. A thousand. Okay. So here's my problem. Here's my problem.

Your folks have been protesting conditions on campus, complaining about a number of things. I had the student leaders on my show saying they had not met face to face with the president since August. For the first opportunity to sit meet the president, 20 out of a thousand show up. Yes sir. That's a problem because if you're talking about confronting leadership and demanding change, folk got to show up and speak their mind and challenge the administration because I'll tell you, if 20 out of 1,000 show up, a bunch of other folks will say, we good, I'm going to move move on what did you say to those

freshmen i would just say you know we did all this talk we did all this work the all the media came out the news stations come out you still need to speak your mind don't be afraid to go out there and say what you need to say don't be afraid to to say, hey, this is what's going on in my room. I got more here. Don't be afraid to say. Go out and speak your mind. I would say that freshmen, even though you guys are freshmen on this campus, y'all still have a voice just like the rest of the student body.

So don't ever feel like your voice is not heard. Yes, we had a protest, but a protest is not enough to do what we need to, the changes that we need to have happen on this campus. So yes, we had a protest, we did all of that, but showing up to these town hall meetings is very, very important because this is where you get a chance to see the president, you get a chance to speak what you need to speak instead of just, oh I went to a protest, I did what I needed to do, I'm going back to my room. Because at that point, it's just like, like it was said, you know what? My job here is done.

So you have a voice. Use it. Don't feel like you're the youngest on campus that you don't have a voice and you can't use it. Use your voice. But also I think it goes beyond just being able to go there and speak your piece. Information gathering is also important. And the fact of the matter is, one of my favorite phrases is, when you don't know, you don't know. And there are a lot of folks who actually don't know.

I've got questions in my pocket. I've had people emailing me and folks like, well, where is this and where is that and what's going on? Well, if you never have an opportunity, look, and I challenged the president, he readily admits they have not communicated enough with students and being transparent about what's going on. You know, when he said that 60% of the funds that came from the federal government was used to pay down student debt, I said, wow, first of all, that's a story they should have been telling folk. That's kind of important to actually share with folk. Other universities have done that. I know at Fisk, they actually gave stipends to folks that paid down their debt. Some other HBCUs did that as well. But that's information that needs to be

shared. But if we're going to have, again, this type of conversation, and we're talking about demanding change then leaders have to lead and they have to tell folk you can't sit on the sidelines and not say anything you must ask questions make demands but also get information so you know actually what's going on so So that was the freshman class. This will become a sophomore class. Yes, sir. What you going to do?

I'm going to be there. Front row. How many other sophomores in here? And how are you also going to challenge others to say, look, you need to be there to directly speak to the president and the administration. Right. So I'm talking to my peers. We've been living for two years. Ever since we got here, we've been having problems with our dorms or with Studexo and things going on on campus.

So we have to be there. Now, when you were listening to the interview, there were a lot of groans, folks like not happy with a number of different things that the president said. Were any of you aware of how the American Rescue Plan funds or the COVID relief funds were actually used when the president said 60 percent were the student debt? I did not. I didn't even know that we got any money from the American Rescue Plan because we are a private institution. No, no, no. So the reality is, the reality is, this is my show, so about $6.5 billion went to a variety of HBCUs.

And we can thank Congressman Jim Clyburn, Congressman Bobby Scott, Congresswoman Alma Adams for that. And the rally is Bethune-Cookman out of the seven out of the actually about eight or 10 different bills received about 68 million dollars. And so this funding. So you're talking about it. It was COVID. And so it was a number of institutions. They were public and private. So wasn't just uh public institutions uh yeah 60 that's why you got to watch roland martin unfiltered because we broke it down uh and so but but that was that was again that was just with them cookman uh if i pull the numbers up uh in a second florida a and m i i believe received about 170 or so million dollars and so again all the hbUs combined were about $6.5 billion.

And so again, so what he says, 60% went to paying down student debt, 40% went to instruction. That's a perfect example. One, the university should have been explaining that. But how many of you even knew where that money went? I got one person back there one person back there i see i see a second person uh so so you were where go and so so how were you aware hold on one second let me go in yeah yeah i'm gonna walk over here we got it right here we working all right so so you so you stand up so you were where so what you read it somewhere you asked somebody um i got it i got it don't worry about it don't worry about it um i believe that was in 2020 or 2021 um they had us sign up um to get the money basically so if you didn't sign up i think they gave the students

around 2 000 but everyone that did sign up they give us 10 000 to go towards our balance it was a little bit over 10 000 they gave it out to the students. Okay. Now, she knew. Did you get the $10,000? Yes, I did. Okay. Who else in here got some of their student debt lowered as a result of their funds?

Raise your hand. One. That's it? Y'all got to read the signs. Go ahead. So it went towards the students that were here before COVID hit. So a lot of them that are freshmen and sophomores, when they came into their freshman year, they weren't eligible to get it. So anybody that's sophomores, they didn't get it.

But anybody that's like juniors and seniors, they should have got it if they signed up for it. Got it. All right. So how many folks are here are juniors and seniors? Y'all didn't get that money? Man, y'all better read those signs. Again, so for me, what I would immediately ask is, if that's the case, would be, again, how was information communicated out? How was it actually shared?

Was it actually communicated to parents and to students? She's shaking her head to say there wasn't. That's one of those things to me that I think is critically important. Now, the university, they've posted some of their financials on the Bethune-Cookman website. Y'all can actually go there and check that out. And so we'll be pulling that as well. But that, again, I think goes back to why you have to have these regular sessions with Student Body so people are getting the information.

But people also have got to show up. They've got to show up. Go ahead. I was just going to say it's a two-way thing. It's not oh i was just gonna say it's a two-way thing like it's not it's not a one-way street it's a two-way street you got to go both ways moving forward um because the president said they're going to be holding with each a class they'll be having weekly town halls um do you anticipate again because people now understand that that people are going to be more willing to actually engage with this administration on the critical issues that you face? If I have to go to Faze or Leroy or other of these or put flyers on the door and knock on these people's door and say, hey, you need to come to this town hall, I will, because this is important.

This is how you make a change within your own institution, by going to these people, by going to the president or whoever we're supposed to be talking to and saying the issues that need to be fixed. Now it's up to them to take what we're saying in consideration to fix it. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes,

but there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley

comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1,

Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English.

I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner.

It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug ban. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Cor vet.

MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Here's the deal. We got to set ourselves up. See, retirement is the long game. We got to make moves and make them early. Set up goals. Don't worry about a setback. Just save up and stack up to reach them. Let's put ourselves in the right position. Pre-game to greater things.

Start building your retirement plan at thisispretirement.org. Brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council. Right. Well, but also putting that level of pressure, it has to stay on because you can't let up. I mean, that's the whole thing. Again, I think one of the things that people lose sight of when we talk about movements, there are moments and then there are movements. Moments are something that happens for one day, but when you're there every single week, when you're constantly there, and look, I totally understand. I know folks are saying, look, I shouldn't have to do all of this because I should be focused on school.

But to your point, if I'm having breathing issues, if I'm having mold issues, if I'm having issues with rodents, if the shower head is not working and lock's not working, I'm telling you right now, I'm giving folk hell every single day to actually get it done and showing up. And so I certainly hope that is the case. Hold tight one second. We're going to go to a break, pay some more bills here, and continue our conversation here at Hope Fellowship Church in Atoma Beach. And we're talking for our community forum, talking Hope Fellowship Church in Atoma Beach. We're talking for our community forum, talking about Bethune-Cookman University. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network.

Download our app, Apple phone, Android phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV. Support our Bring the Funk fan club. Check check and money orders appeal box 57196 washington dc 20037 that's 0196 cash app dollar sign rm unfiltered paypal is r martin unfiltered venmo is rm unfiltered zale is rolling at rolling s martin.com rolling that rolling martin unfiltered.com and of course the book that is scaring white folks all around the country white fear how the browning of america isaring white folks all around the country, White Fear, How the Browning of America is Making White Folks Lose Their Minds. Get your copy at bookstores nationwide. Download it on Audible.

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P.O. Box 57196, Washington, D.C. 20037-0196. The Cash app is $RM Unfiltered. PayPal is RMartin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Next on Get Wealthy with me, Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach. Listen to this. Women of color are starting 90% of the businesses in this country. That's the good news. The bad news, as a rule, we're not making nearly as much as everyone else. But joining us on the next Get Wealthy episode is Betty Hines. She's a business strategist,

and she's showing women how to elevate other women. I don't like to say this openly, but we're getting better at it. Women struggle with collaborating with each other. And for that reason, one of the things that I demonstrate in the sessions that I have is that you can go further together if you collaborate. That's right here on Get Wealthy, only on Black Star Network. Ha ha ha ha, ha ha ha ha, yeah. Hey, I'm Antonique Smith. What up, I'm Ilana Well, and you are watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. I feel good. Thank you. Kjell Kjell All right, folks, welcome back to Hope Fellowship Church, Daytona Beach, Florida, for our community forum, Bethune-Cookman University.

We, of course, glad to have all of you who are watching. Don't forget to be watching on YouTube. Hit that like button. Some of y'all commenting, y'all riding for free. Okay, like we charge you. Hit the like button. Facebook shared as well. You're y'all riding for free. Okay, ain't like we charge you, but hit the like button. Facebook shared as well. You're watching the Black Star Network app.

The exact same thing. Share your comments as well. We certainly appreciate that because it impacts the algorithm. And y'all also know how stuff goes viral. Some of y'all may have seen my conversation last night with that black conservative. He didn't witness protection today uh after he unlocked his instagram account twitter account they've been lighting his behind up but he has to come on that's what happened when you come on my show and lie it never good for you uh and so again

hit that button we certainly appreciate it all right, joining us right now, a couple of graduates of Bethune-Cookman, Warnell Johnny Vickers, Jr., a former football player here at Bethune-Cookman. How's it going? Roderick Ziegler, BCU alum. All right. I appreciate that. Now, y'all didn't get a female alum? Nobody want to talk? See, look at her. She just shot her hand up. Okay, come on. Come on. All right, go ahead and sit down right there. All right, now you're going to do what's right.

I'm going to be like Prince, kick you off the stage. I'm just messing with you. I'm just messing with you. All right, what you're going to do what's right. I'm going to be like Prince, kick you off the stage. I'm just messing with you. I'm just messing with you. All right. What's your name? My name is Tundra King, a 1986 alum. 1986 alum. All right, cool.

All right. So let's first deal with this here. I asked the president this, and I don't know of any other place I've seen where you have this contentious relationship with alumni and the university. There's lawsuits that's going on. The president told me last week alumni giving dropped from 12 percent to 1 percent. That's unheard of, which is absolutely crazy. The national average is only three to four percent. And so to even be below that is crazy. So how would you turn what's going on? You heard what he said in terms of chapters

not being able to properly track funds, folks looking for receipts and stuff along those lines. So explain to me what's going on in this relationship with this alumni and his university? It's a very strained relationship. I've been a donor of Bethune-Cookman since I graduated. Around 1988, 87, I became a police officer. My school was very important to me, and I want to leave a legacy, so I began to give, and I've continued to give. To this day, I still allow the college, with all the woes that we face, to take

money from my account every month. So when we began to work with the college and we heard about the lawsuit that took place, it was devastating to me. I immediately emailed, at that time, our interim president, which we've gone through several since that time. It was Hiram Powell. I sent him numerous emails. I sent emails to the board saying, I understand that we went to a different model, but why didn't you notify the alumni to say, we're deciding to take a different route so that we will feel inclusive. And I'm still yet to hear from someone as to the change, why was the change beneficial? And I heard all kinds of things that the previous alumni weren't giving money. That is a falsehood, if I can say so myself.

Can I say lie? It's a lie. It's a lie. It's not true. We've continued to give. We work hard. I'm in the Broward County chapter. Jackie Shorter is our president, and we work diligently to give back to these students.

So don't believe the hype, students. The alumni give money, and we will continue to give. So in the previous group association, how many chapters were there? Several. I know it's 20, 30, 40. At least 20, at least. It's about 10 in here now, 10 to 15. Palm Beach, Lauderdale, Miami, Orlando. They here.

Roland, all of this could have been avoided had we had proper leadership and leadership that was willing to sit down and talk like mature, professional, educated black people i said all that because you know the fact that we black is very hurtful when you have people from your university calling your job to have you removed because you don't agree with the conditions or certain things that are going on solo you said that happened to you yes it happened to me i um'm a professional. You met me before, Roland. I'm sorry that you don't even remember me, but... It's cool. Really? Hey, you here now, though, brother.

I commend you, and thank you for coming. But... Like I met two or three people. No, you met me, man. I'm messing with you. You met me before. But, yes, I used to host the Florida Blue Ballad of Bands for the Florida Classic for about 10 consecutive years.

And somebody from Bethune-Cookman, my alma mater, a black person, called to have me removed because I didn't agree with certain things that were going on. And I made it known. And I don't work for Bethune-Cookman. But I'll always be an alumnus to the day I die. And we have people that are in position and in power, and it's very hurtful to see them going about what they do because as an alumnus, I'm used to people like Dr. Oswald Perry Bronson. Now, I'm not saying, and I, hold on, I didn't say that say that first of all for the folks who are watching at

home who don't know who that was i that was my president when i was here got it now i'm not saying i'm not saying you have to be him or be just like him i said that to say i'm accustomed before him was richard v moore i'm accustomed who was the president before him was Richard V. Moore. I'm accustomed, who was the president before him, I'm accustomed to class. I'm accustomed to family atmosphere. One of the reasons I chose to come to Bethune-Cookman because I partied a lot. I needed somebody to be able to talk to and be able to have hands-on experience. And when I was a student here through my matriculation, I was able to go and make meetings and sit down and talk to my college president. He was out on the yard talking to us.

So when we as alumni don't see that now with the current administration and we have an interim president, the second interim president, which came. Wait. Yeah. Our third interim president, which came after Dr. Cripe. So we've had four presidents in just about as many years. We're not accustomed to that. So now we're here in this situation,

and now you have the Board of Trustees and the school suing its alumni association, the original alumni association, which is over 88 years old, which was founded and started by our founder. And then you tell us you're going to try to dismantle us. It ain't happening. It's we're not going anywhere. We're not going anywhere. All of this could have been avoided by a simple way. And I know for a fact, I'm not telling you what I heard. I know for a fact that the Alumni Association, which is currently called the Mary McLeod Bethune National Alumni Association, they requested a meeting with, at the time,

Dr. Hiram Powell, who was our interim president, and they requested a meeting and they asked for Belvin Perry or some members of the Board of Trustees to come to our national convention. We were refused and turned down um there was also a lawyer that was called in uh so we could meet have a mediation that was refused so all of this it seems as though they they pretended like and i'm listening to dr drake it's as though none of this ever happened and everything's going to be fine. And you started this with us. And now you're making it look like we're the bad guys because we don't like how you're treating us. Alumni have been disregarded.

Alumni have been disrespected. And they're trying to throw us out like trash. And it's not going to happen. Wildcat born, wildcat bred. And when I die, I'll be wildcat dead. I'm faithful to this school. I'm faithful to this school. I'm faithful to Dr. Bethune. The president who Rod so dearly loves is my grandfather.

I'm the grandson of Dr. Rod. I'm the grandson of Dr. Robinson. And I think one of the things that's happening right now is from a historical standpoint, right, y'all? From a historical standpoint, that alumni feel kind of like burned. You know, we went through a lot with the Jackson administration, correct? Right. And so the Jackson administration really hurt because that was what put us into such financial straits. We had a surplus when my grandfather retired. We had a surplus when Dr. Reed left. So we had money. It was misused.

Then what happened was Dr. Jackson left. We had Judge Grimes come in as the interim. He led the way for a little bit. No permanent presidency. Then we had dr kreit come in and dr kreit he helped right the ship right it was a hard right but he helped right the ship now what hurt was that dr kreit only stayed for a year and a half well and and my understanding that he was run off yeah dad aboard. Yeah. That aboard a trustee. So it was.

That ain't what I heard. No. So. That's what I know. It was two things that came out. One thing was that he's choosing to leave. And another thing was something else. Don't.

Hold on. I read two things. I read it. I read it. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Like I said, I ain't read it. Don't believe the former. He was run off. Okay. But. So we have. So we have. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, you have to do that. Hold tight. Once again, I've got to go to a break. I'm going to pick up on that when we come back. Folks, you're watching this special town hall here in Daytona Beach. Community town hall regarding Bethune-Cookman University right here in Roland-Martin, Georgia,

on the Black Star Network. We'll be right back. hatred on the streets a horrific scene a white nationalist rally that descended into deadly violence white people are losing their damn lives. There's an angry pro-Trump mob storm to the U.S. Capitol. We're about to see the rise of what I call white minority resistance. We have seen white folks in this country who simply cannot tolerate black folks voting. I think what we're seeing is the inevitable result of violent denial.

This is part of American history. Every time that people of color have made progress, whether real or symbolic, there has been what Carol Anderson at Emory University calls white rage as a backlash. This is the wrath of the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Boys. America, there's going to be more of this. There's all the Proud Boys, guys. This country is getting increasingly racist in its behaviors and its attitudes because of the fear of white people.

The fear that they're taking our jobs, they're taking our resources, they're taking our women. This is white fear. I'm Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach, and my new show, Get Wealthy, focuses on the things that your financial advisor and bank isn't telling you, but you absolutely need to know. So watch Get Wealthy on the Black Star Network. It's Kim Whitley. Yo, what's up? This your boy Ice Cube. Hey yo, peace world. What's going on? It's the love king of R&B, Raheem Devon.

And you're watching Rolander Martin Unfiltered. All right, folks. is good enough for me. All right, folks, welcome back to Hope Fellowship Church. We've been on the beat for an hour, but then it took me an hour. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no.

Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated.

I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher.

Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Cor vet. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real.

It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Here's the deal. We got to set ourselves up.

See, retirement is the long game. We got to make moves and make them early. Set up goals. Don't worry about a setback. Just save up and stack up to reach them. Let's put ourselves in the right position. Pre-game to greater things. Start building your retirement plan at thisispretirement.org.

Brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council. All right. Had to make sure everybody was awake. All right, before we went to the break, we were laying the foundation in terms of really how we got to this point. And the reality is this year, and that is, I mean, you're talking about a whole lot of things that have happened. And so past is prologueue past lays in terms of i understand the anger of thing like that but here's the question what now how do you move forward um you you have an interim president uh you but you still have your board of trustees uh as as i listen to what you laid out uh it sounds to me like your fundamental

problem still is with the ultimate leaders, which is the Board of Trustees. So is there one trustee who you're communicating with, talking with, who can serve as someone to help with this? I personally, over the past several weeks, have been in contact with a board member, and they have just kind of laid out, because my issue was I felt that this board member was kind of like dismissing what was going on and but he said from his perspective from his perspective he said that my job is to bring in money I'm not worried about necessarily all the football what's going on with that because the people who I'm after aren't concerned with football I need to show them what it means the great Bethune-Cookman

University. Well, first of all, if anybody, let's be real clear, if anybody who is a board member makes that statement, that person really should not be a board member.

Because the reality is, a member of the board of trustees is responsible for the entire university and so what's what they should be communicating is that i care about the health and well-being of the entire university because the reality is when you talk about football or basketball or band that's actually your most visible assets who Sherry Park that serve as a recruitment tool as well yes and so and and I've been communicating again with administration folks alumni board folks as well and I don't know who the entity is I don't know whether it's the United

Methodist Church I don't know who it is but uh that because i mean look you still look this university gets funding from the umc every year but there's somebody has to be the grown-up of all grown-ups and say listen we don't need all of this drama because i can tell you it's a lot of media folk and got no problem with lots of drama. As I've heard described here, this might be a real housewives show or love and hip hop in terms of all the friction back and forth. And that doesn't move the university forward. It doesn't. We believe to move the university forward, we must get rid of

our board chair. Belvin Perry must go. There's no options. There's no getting around it. But the problem you have, though, is that the board has to do that. And so, the question is... No, people have to do

that. And that's why we're here. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. But no, I'm telling you right now, this is the fundamental problem. Being a private institution, there literally is no entity that's over your board. And so now, now, again, the people can have leverage and influence, but in terms of who actually has to make the votes that's the other board members which raises again which raises the question how how are you are how are you communicating even public with the other board members to say hey we need you to speak up and and staying with us because it seems as if you got folks who are there who don't really want to

say anything don't want to get sideways with the chair. And look, the chair tried to come up to me. That wasn't wise. He's had about 500,000 views on YouTube. I'm just saying it wasn't wise. But again, this does not do anything to improve the institution. The drama. It takes funding to improve the institution. We know it's a drama. It takes funding to run the university.

And with everything that you've heard from the students, the parents that are outraged about what's taking place with their young people that are at the university. We know Bethune-Cookman must maintain at least about 2400 students to stay viable financially. And so it's sad to say that we have to hit them in the pockets before we can make these changes. And I would hate to see the university do that. And so with that, we're going to keep sounding the alarm and we're going to try to continue to shine the light, which is why we're here tonight, because we know that they want to remain in darkness. We've been in darkness. You silence your alumni with the lawsuit. You silence your students with an NDA. And so people have been afraid to come forward. Well, I get a good pension. I don't have to wait for Bethune-Cookman to pay me. So we want to sound

the alarm for these young people to let them know that we're going to continue to shine light where there's darkness. We've asked for transparency. We ask as alumni, where's the money going? That's what our signs say out here. We ask for that information. We give money. We feel we have a right to see where that money is being dispersed. The students have asked, where is the money going? And it's just the math ain't mathing. And that's why we're here tonight. So you talk. So in terms of your alumni, have you had a meeting with Dr. Drake? Yes, yes. Did we have one? Well, Dr. Drake had plenty what they would call, to me, control fireside chats. You would have to register before you attended the meeting, and once you attended the meeting, I think I was the only one at that time, unfortunately, that voiced some very hard concerns. His claim to fame was that they are not suing the alumni. They're suing the association or the former organization.

And what I said to him, what I conveyed to him was, so the alumni, the association is made up of chickens? No, the association is made up of hardworking alums who give their monies to help these students and other donors that love Bethune-Cookman. So he kind of danced around all the questions. I asked him about some of the mold in the dorms, and he blames everything on the hurricanes. Everything gets blamed on hurricanes. So we have a lot of work to do at Bethune-Cookman. Go ahead.

Roland, here's what I have to say. Number one, we need a leader. We need a president, not an interim president. We need a president. So hold interim president. We need a president. So hold on, on that point, there's supposed to be a search committee. Is there any alumni and student participation in this national search? No. The national search is being conducted by the board of trustees.

Traditionally, when we do it, and we've only had to do it a couple of times, we've had a national search. We had a company come in and do the search, and then they pick four or five finalists. Right. Alumni were allowed. You know the process. Alumni were allowed to come and talk to them, ask them questions, and then a president was chosen. But since Dr. Crider's left, we haven't had a leader.

So that's one of the main issues. So the alumni has no involvement in that process whatsoever? No, not whatsoever. I know at least one alumni on the search committee, Kelvin Maynard. He's on the – that's at least one I know. So you said there's a graduate who's on the search committee. Yes. Has he reported back to alumni about the process?

No. Well, here's an important part. No. And and there's been so many alumni meetings that have been going on. But in an alumni meeting, he said that we could have done a better job in reporting of what is going on as far as the search. OK, so have they even laid out a timetable in terms of the process? So, you know, for instance, I mean, the interim president, you know, expires, you know, look, June 30th. Have they said, hey, by the fall, by 2020, January 2024, we want to have a permanent president in place? They sent out a letter saying that there was a search.

When was that? To my knowledge, it's probably, it's been a few months ago okay but but to my knowledge they didn't have a a date or a deadline that i remember but um that the other problem is we and this is the point i want to make too the other problem that we have is we have so many different factions of alumni we not everybody agrees with the majority of the people that are in here. So they have had meetings, but they have them with people that agree with their tactics and their process. They meet with people who are patting them on the back

for the bad service that they're getting. And I can't help but ask myself the question the other day, what would have happened if Ed Reed had not done what he did? Or what would have happened if we wouldn't have been able to get in contact with you? The same stuff would have been going on. So we have different alumni, and I want to say this to any alumni that's watching this, whether you agree with the administration or not, if we don't come together as alumni, students and parents and also faculty and staff, we're going to lose our school. We're going to lose our school because there are me

personally, this is what I believe. I'm not speaking for anybody else, but I believe there are factions that are out to get not only Bethune-Cookman, but a lot of our HBCUs. They want to see us fail and we're helping them fail. What we're doing actually is not helping. We actually have alumni that are in here right now, and I know y'all don't want to hear this, but I've been saying this for years too, and I'm going to tell you, I'm going to keep it 100. We have alumni that are in here right now that won't join the Alumni Association that won't won't give money to the school and haven't given money to the school since they graduated now part of that is how they

retreated while they were students so we got students that are sitting here that living in molded dorms are they going to want to give back when they graduate they're going to graduate get their cap and gown and they're going to run and you can't blame them so we've got we've got to do something alumni that's counterintuitive we've got to give and you can't blame them. So we've got, we've got to do something alumni that's counterintuitive. We've got to give and continue to support the school, even though we don't like the conditions, but find a way also to get a new board of trustees and turn things around for these current students. I've got to, I'm going to go to a break. I'm going to come back for our final segment here at this community town hall here at Hope

Fellowship Church in Etona Beach. We're talking about Bethune-Cookman University, one of the more prominent HBCUs in this country and obviously in this state. And so we'll continue this conversation right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Again, download

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All right. All right, folks, welcome back to Hope Fellowship, our final segment. You mentioned, you talked about different groups here. And I'm going to put the question to you, which I say to the students as well. You can't have 20 or 30 or 50 freshmen showing up to a meeting with the president and you've got 1,000. So when it comes to your alumni, you can't move. You think about the phrase, it's the band, one band, one sound. Um,

you, you can't move in that direction if you've got folks who are all over the place. So how are y'all trying to resolve your alumni differences moving forward? Because if you got a faction over here, they are not financially carrying what everybody else can do. And so if you're moving forward and you don't have even a majority of your alumni on board, you're not going to be successful. So how are you trying to fix that before you make demands of the university dealing with

your alumni? And I mean, again, who is that person? Who is that group saying, hey, we got to set our differences aside? Well, we have a group that started called the Black Rose Project. Mayor McLeod Bethune called all of her students black roses. We started the Black Rose Project because during the litigation, the Alumni Association was limited at what they could do or say. So the Black Roads Project came together to inform and educate other alumni of what was happening and what was going on.

Matter of fact, they can go to the Black Roads Project right now on YouTube. We have like a two-hour presentation to educate and inform people of what exactly was going on. We also are encouraging people to continue to raise money. But the school, when it comes to the Mary McRae Bethune National Alumni Association, they won't even affiliate themselves at all even to take money from us. There have been a couple of times that I know that they've tried to turn money in for the students,

and they say we don't want it. So the school is going to have, the administration is going to have to do their part. I believe that this is galvanizing the alumni. It's awakening a lot of alumni who haven't been active, and we're going to come together. But the school has to do their part too. I think one of the ways that we can bridge that gap is to be able to engage the students. I think there is a breach between alumni and our undergraduates. And to be able to come alongside of our students and say, hey, we have your backs.

We understand that there's a lot of different things happening around you. And we've walked through a lot of what you have walked through. But we want to come alongside you. We want to help you. We want to be able to hear your voices. Right? walked through but we want to come alongside you we want to help you we want to be able to hear your voices right and we need to be able as alumni to come back and and you know gird these young people up and walk with them through this time and i think with that uh when it comes to our younger alumni who are uh uh we are wanting to give that will help now be in their memory saying you know what i I remember when.

But here's the deal, though. If I want to give, I don't know who to give to. So if you don't have an established, Anthony, I need eyes. If you don't have an established conduit, who do you give to? Like, where do you, if a graduate wants to give right now you call the you you if you're a part of the alumni well mary mccrae bethune alumni association you can give through that organization but if you want to give as an individual you can call miss sherry paramore in the office of institutional advancement and you can can tell them how much you want to give, but also where you want that money to go.

Now, what happens after that? I don't know. But we can still give, but we have a lot of work to do, and I keep saying that we've got to come together as alumni so we can get this resolved. We need a new board of trustees. I think that was part of the school's plan was to divide and conquer. So they're well aware of the fact that when they came up with the, they say they're not DSO, they use a DSO model. And I think it was part of the plan to divide and conquer.

And with that being said, then now you don't have, people just don't want to give. Although I give, I said my money was earmarked for the band and for the gospel choir. I only found out like two years later after I was given all that time, the gospel choir said they had not seen one dime of the money. So although I said I wanted and I had it earmarked for a specific cause, it was not. But guess what? In spite of that, I've continued to give to the university I love that was so instrumental in making me who I am today. So I think we can

continue to give to our local chapters or we can follow through like I do every so often to make sure my funds are going to where it's earmarked to be. Well, and look, the reality is there are people all around the country who make donations to charities and they follow up. They follow up to make sure that, hey, this is where I said I wanted to go and this is where it needs to go. Final comments. Go ahead. We got to come together. Point blank. Period. We are Bethune-Cookman. We carry Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune's legacy. We are her black roses. We are her beautiful black children.

We do not let her legacy fall to the ground. I don't care. I don't care how much you don't like whoever at the top. It don't matter. We carry the legacyB NAA. Continue to support Bethune-Cookman because the students and our school needs it. And we need to continue this. This is a good start.

Thank you, Roland, for coming. Shout out to Bishop Triplett for having us here and I gotta be slick rolling and give a shout out to Omega Sci-Fi Fraternity Incorporated we don't we don't mind youth groups go ahead thank you so much Mr. Rowland I sent you about 400 inboxes, DMs, texts, all that. So thank you so much for allowing us to come and to be heard. I'm so thankful for every face that's in the place, because that means you care about the well-being of

Bethune-Cookman. Find a student and pour into that student, and then that student pours into the next student, so that we can keep this legacy alive. And shout out to the members of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. So let me, first of all, let me thank you. Let me thank the students as well.

Bishop, thank you very much as well. When the other church canceled, they took a vote. I hit my man, Pastor Jamal Bryant, and he said, call Bishop. And I was in Denver last Friday getting an award there, and I called him, and he said, absolutely, we'll be glad to host this. And so I appreciate doing so. Let me say this as a final word. You can be present or you can have presence. And as I listen to the students and alumni, as I've talked to folks, administration as well, this is a moment when leaders are supposed to lead. I sat down with President Drake earlier. He's the interim president.

But let me be perfectly clear who I'm speaking to right now. I'm speaking specifically to you, Board President Belvin Perry Jr. You are the board chair. You are supposed to lead. You are a retired judge. Your job is to bring folks together. If there was a jury that was deadlocked,

you would tell them to go back and keep deliberating. You cannot be the leader of a board of trustees and have this level of dissension within this university. You cannot have students and alumni and folks saying you are the problem, then you need to look into a mirror and ask yourself, why am I the problem? This is a moment when leaders can't just be present but must have presence. You can't be scared to come in here. You can't be scared to come in here. You can't be scared to talk to faculty and alumni. You can't be scared to talk to students and parents because these are constituents. You are not a dictator. Now, somebody told me, they said, oh man, you're going hard on the

president. He's your alpha brother. Let me be real clear. That means nothing to me. This is about saving an institution. So what is needed are for folks to put egos aside, to put petty personal differences aside, and to actually say, how can we stand together to save an institution because it would be a shame for dr dr mcleod bethune and all these black folks who have had blood sweat and tears to keep the university open to be having these problems in 2023 so So I challenge you, board president, board chair Perry, have the guts to have some presence and to lead. And don't hide,

don't run, but actually take some accountability and lead. And if you can't lead, get out of the way and let somebody else leave. Those are my final comments.

Y'all got to close out with your school song. Go. Dear Apple, after allowing love, please send a light to be. Thou are the cause of all and may and give it the ministry.

Here on the water thou art all and all the world to me Thou the answer, prayer of the dream

O God, protect me in easy seat and hear the easy sea, crown her with love and cheer. We'll ever sing our praise to thee, in days

of strong and low. All hail to thee here BCC All hail to thee

all hail Hail the dream of room and hope Thanks a lot. Thank you. Black Star Network is here. No punching. A real revolutionary right now.

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Every week, we'll take a deeper dive into the world we're living in. Join the conversation only on the Black Star Network. Hi, I'm Dr. Jackie Hood-Martin, and I have a question for you. Ever feel as if your life is teetering and the weight and pressure of the world is consistently on your shoulders? Well, let me tell you, living a balanced life isn't easy. Join me each Tuesday on Blackstar Network for Balanced Life with Dr. Jackie. We're all impacted by the culture, whether we know it or not. From politics to music and entertainment, it's a huge part of our lives. And we're going to talk about it every day right here on The Culture with me, Faraji Muhammad, only on the Black Star

Network. I'm Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach, and my new show, Get Wealthy, focuses on the things that your financial advisor and bank isn't telling you, but you absolutely need to know. So watch Get Wealthy on the Blackstar Network. I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated.

I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Here's the deal. We gotta set ourselves up. See, retirement is the long game. We got to make moves and make them early.

Set up goals. Don't worry about a setback. Just save up and stack up to reach them. Let's put ourselves in the right position. Pre-game to greater things. Start building your retirement plan at thisispreetirement.org. Brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council. I'm Clayton English.

I'm Greg Lott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This has kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios.

Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart Podcast.