DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Students are back at Bethune-Cookman University Monday for the first day of school, with a new president to greet them.
- Bethune-Cookman University is $15 million in debt, on probation
- Dr. LaBrent Chrite is the school's 7th president
- Plan to deal with B-CU's problems "not easy"
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Dr. LaBrent Chrite is taking over after much turmoil with financial, legal, and academic issues over the last few years. Despite the school being on probation and being about $15 million in debt, Dr. Chrite is hopeful he can turn things around.
“We have a plan to deal with that," Dr. Chrite said. "It's not an easy plan, but it's part of our path forward. It's what we are working with our accreditors on, and the reality is there is no option for us but to get this in order."
Chrite was formerly the dean at the University of Denver's Daniels College of Business. Before that he served as dean at Montclair State University in New Jersey.
Chrite's first priority at B-CU is to get the school off probatation with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges.
“I am working with my new CFO, our governing board chair members, members of our trustee, members of my senior leadership team to put the documentation and the data and to develop the strategies that will convince them and others that not only are we committed to stabilizing and steading the ship, but we have an ambitious and aspirational strategy to achieve even higher expectations,” Chrite said.
His next order of business is digging the school out of millions of dollars of debt.
“We are working with creditors, we are looking at revenue streams, we are looking at expenditures. Nothing is off the table," said Chrite.
However, with a brand new leadership team behind him and a vision of making Mary McLeod Bethune proud, Chrite is up to the challenge of returning the school to what it was and gaining back trust of its students.
"Once they get to know this leadership team, they will have as much confidence in them as I do, and I am excited to be in this fight with them, and I am confident we will get it done," Chrite said.
While he did not share an exact timeline on when he expects all of this to be competed, he plans to have progress soon.
“I absolutely expect to make a tremendous and measurable impact not just the first year, but the first three months and six months, and certainly over the course of the first year," Chrite said. "Our long term strategies are really a 5-7 year plan, and that is nothing less than to transform this institution."