Edward Waters College, the small cash-strapped historically Black college in Jacksonville, Fla., has turned to an alumnus and former sheriff to serve as interim president.
Nat Glover, a member of Edward Waters’ class of 1966, officially became interim president of the African Methodist Episcopal-affiliated college last week. He replaces Dr. Claudette Williams, who announced her resignation at the end of February to take a job as vice president with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, the agency that accredits Edward Waters.
Glover, a former sheriff of Duval County and the first African-American sheriff in Florida since Reconstruction, inherits the top administrative position at a college that confronts persistent challenges.
For decades, the school has had a reputation as a place that accommodates students with little or no money even though its own finances were tight. Some alumni, including Glover, recall that as students they went door to door in Jacksonville to raise funds for the college. In an interview earlier this year, Williams said the college had a deficit of $3.3 million when she took over as president. By the middle of the 2009-10 school year, the deficit had been reduced by $600,000, Williams said at the time, adding that she was confident it would be eliminated by the end of the school year.
Glover, who until last week was on the Edward Waters College trustee board, says he is confident the deficit will be eliminated by the end of the month.
“We have to get our midterm report in to the Southern Accreditation of Colleges and Schools,” he says. “We have to submit a balanced budget.”
He estimates the Edward Waters needs $1.8 million to eliminate the deficit and says the college has been raising the money on its own and also with the help of the AME church.
