By most accounts, Dr. Sidney A. Ribeau was a seasoned college president who was well-liked by both students and faculty at Howard University.
But shortly after he arrived on campus in 2008, following a 13-year stint at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, he was quickly viewed as an outsider with some wondering if his presidency even had a fighting chance.
Unlike his most immediate predecessor, H. Patrick Swygert and others who came before him, Ribeau was not an alumnus of the historically Black university and wasn’t steeped in the school’s culture. His management style, according to faculty, was that of a consensus-seeker who called for more transparency in the day-to-day operations of the 146-year-old school. He wasn’t top-down in his approach.
But at a university that prides itself on tradition, Ribeau’s vision for a new Howard may have ultimately been his downfall — the very thing that cost him his job — particularly at an institution that relishes in its past and has not readily embraced change.
In a carefully worded letter sent to students, faculty and supporters of the university on October 1, Ribeau, 65, said that he has decided to retire in December. But as details of the rocky relationship between him and the school’s Board of Trustees emerge, it appears that Ribeau was forced out of the job after just five years on the post.
The news of his departure came as a surprise to students and faculty members on the Washington, D.C., campus who say that Ribeau was making major strides in turning the financially strapped university around while also increasing the overall morale on campus.
