As Morehouse College settles in to the overhaul in leadership that occurred last Friday, Morehouse constituents are in agreement that it is time for the college to turn a new page.
“Anybody who is associated with or went to Morehouse all have one thing in common — they all love the college,” said Willie Woods, who replaced Robert C. Davidson as the chair of Morehouse’s board of trustees last Friday.
Woods graduated from Morehouse in 1985 with a degree in accounting. After college, he returned to his home state of Michigan to work in banking before going on to Harvard Business School. From there, he went into finance in New York City and is currently the president of ICV Partners, a private equity firm he co-founded 18 years ago.
“I’ve always found that in life as in business, whenever there appears to be uncertainty and instability, there’s always a line of opportunity,” Woods said. “You can take advantage of the chaos and use it to your benefit to create an opportunity for yourself.”
In addition to changes in board leadership, the board also voted to remove former president Dr. John Silvanus Wilson on Friday. Wilson, who served as Morehouse president for four years, was originally set to step down at the end of June after the board voted in January to not renew his contract.
The January vote sparked the current controversy at Morehouse. Faculty and students said that they were shut out from having a voice in the board’s decision, and the board offered little explanation for their decision in the months that followed. Reports circulated that the relationship between Wilson and Davidson had broken down over the years and that tension was the root cause of Wilson’s contract ending early.
