Bethune-Cookman University, founded 118 years ago, still standing as proud as its founder
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Throughout most of its 118-year history, Bethune-Cookman University has continually grown and evolved to meet the needs of its students.
It's a place that accepts both academic stars and kids who need a second chance getting their lives on track.
The private university has also become an important employer in Daytona Beach and a training ground for parts of the city's workforce.
B-CU's history is intertwined with Daytona Beach's earliest days. The primary administration building, White Hall, and the on-campus home of school founder Mary McLeod Bethune are on the National Register of Historic Places.
Yet two years ago, the institution known best for its beloved founder looked as if it could be headed for a sudden and tragic death.
B-CU was sinking under the weight of legal and financial problems, but a mix of school, local and state officials joined forces to pull the university out of its bog.
Now B-CU is hoping to carry on for another 118 years.
Sheila Flemming-Hunter, an adjunct history professor at Clark Atlanta University who wrote a book on B-CU, said the school's importance to Daytona Beach "is almost immeasurable."
"Bethune-Cookman University is a major employer in Daytona Beach," said Flemming-Hunter, who has been a professor and held high-level administrative positions at B-CU, the University of Texas, the University of Maryland and Clark Atlanta University.
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B-CU has become part of Daytona's and Florida's economic engines, producing graduates who have gone on to careers in a wide range of professions, said Flemming-Hunter, an early 1970s graduate of B-CU.
Abel Bartley, a professor of African American history at Clemson University, said B-CU's affiliation with the United Methodist Church has helped produce graduates who became ministers.
Leonard Lempel, a retired history professor who taught at B-CU from 1980 to 1996 and Daytona State College from 1996 to 2015, said B-CU offered a place for Black students to earn a college degree and allowed a Black middle class to form in Daytona Beach.
How B-CU came to be
Bethune founded the Daytona Literary and Industrial Training School for Negro Girls in 1904. She started out with $1.50, five students and a rented house in the heart of Daytona's historically Black neighborhood.
In 1923, the fledgling school began a two-year merger process with Cookman Institute For Boys in Jacksonville, Florida. Cookman Institute had been founded in 1872, and it was the first place in Florida where Black people could pursue an education.
When the merger was complete in 1925, there was a new co-ed school called the Daytona-Cookman Collegiate Institute.
In 1931, the school became accredited by the Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools of the Southern States as a junior college, and the school’s name was officially changed to Bethune-Cookman College.
In 1941, a four-year degree program was developed in liberal arts and teacher training.
While other historically Black colleges and universities too wounded by the Great Depression folded in the 1930s and 1940s, B-CU hung on and grew.
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The college's offerings of courses and majors expanded over the decades, with fields of study increasing from 12 in 1975 to 37 by 2004. Then in 2007, Bethune-Cookman achieved university status.
Today there are about 2,845 students at B-CU, and more than 19,000 have graduated from the university.
B-CU avoids crash
Several years after the advancement to university status, B-CU starting having problems that led to a flurry of lawsuits and financial difficulties so deep that the school was in danger of closing its doors.
Around 2015, a plan was in place for a company called Quantum to build two 600-bed dorms on the B-CU campus. On the surface it appeared to be an $85 million venture, but under a 40-year lease agreement with Quantum with escalating payments, B-CU would end up paying $306 million for the dorms.
The school quickly ran into problems making the annual dorm payments.
Multiple lawsuits were filed, including one brought by the university against former B-CU President Edison Jackson alleging fraud and bribery related to the $306 million construction deal.
At the beginning of 2018, B-CU became embroiled in another lawsuit over another student housing project. The plan to build apartments a few blocks from campus was presented publicly as rental units for anyone, but a deal had been put together behind the scenes for the six-story apartment complex to be high-rent housing for B-CU students.
B-CU stood to make $45 million by the end of a 27-year agreement with Heron Development. B-CU was going to receive $240,000 every year to manage the apartments, as well as 25% of the gross rent proceeds.
University officials said Jackson approved the deal without the knowledge of the school’s board of trustees. B-CU backed out of the deal not long after Jackson left the university, and Heron Development sued the school.
In the summer of 2018, the university was placed on probation by its regional accreditor, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. The accreditor cited failings in multiple areas, including integrity, governing board characteristics, financial resources, financial responsibility, and control of finances.
The accreditation action followed significant financial losses by the university — $28 million over the previous two years.
In 2020, under the leadership of Jackson's successor, LaBrent Chrite, B-CU was able to regain its balance and move away from a financial plummet too great to survive.
In March 2020, an array of officials helped B-CU secure $13 million in new annual state funding that would be recurring. Then in September 2020, the university was taken off probation and maintained its accreditation.