Former President Edison O. Jackson overstated Bethune-Cookman University's enrollment by nearly 1,000 students — nearly a quarter of the school's census — before resigning in July 2017, meeting minutes sent to the school's Board of Trustees show. 

He also allegedly racked up charges for personal trips on a university-issued credit card, the minutes show.

The July to October meeting minutes, obtained by the News-Journal, reveal that in the months after Jackson’s resignation, the board has unearthed a number of irregularities from his tenure.

Hakim Lucas, B-CU’s former vice president for Institutional Advancement, was paid $110,000 in bonuses, according to July minutes. In an October meeting, B-CU trustees also learned of a $1.5 million loan issued to an undisclosed recipient. The loan was mistakenly credited as a gift.

Last week, the university filed suit against Jackson and Lucas, claiming that corruption and fraud surrounded the development of the school’s newest dorm. In that suit, the university claims that it was "duped" when the board was led to believe that the project would cost about $72 million. The actual price tag was $85 million, and it could end up costing the school $306 million under the terms of a 40-year lease.

The meeting minutes also show the board's reaction to an under-the-radar agreement between a developer and B-CU to build a high-rise apartment building in the Midtown neighborhood. That deal, which was never disclosed to the university’s board but dates back to 2014, has resulted in the developer suing the university after it pulled out of the project.

Newly appointed Chair Michelle Carter-Scott, who has served on the board since 2012, said trustees were not always provided with complete and accurate information.

"None of us in the board went in thinking that the administration or the university would mislead or lie or send us off in a direction where (that) was not the way we should go," Carter-Scott said. "We asked questions. We were given answers. And we found that it just wasn’t accurate, what we were given."

The school’s difficulties are far from over.

Following negative publicity in the summer, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, which accredits universities, sent a letter to B-CU and gave it until Sept. 30 to respond, according to the August meeting minutes. The NCAA also awarded B-CU a $500,000 grant, but the collegiate athletic organization rescinded the offer, the August meeting minutes show. Interim President Hubert Grimes is trying to get them to reconsider. 

A group calling itself the Concerned Constituents Committee for B-CU has called for 11 members of the board to resign, saying that members failed to protect the school. A former trustee who has raised questions for nearly three years about Jackson’s stewardship said that the board was out of touch with the reality of the situation.

"There was a running joke that, ‘The board reported to Jackson instead of Jackson reporting to the board,’ and I didn’t like it," said B-CU 1978 alumnus and 2007 to 2016 trustee Johnny McCray Jr.

B-CU takes action

Upon Jackson’s retirement announcement in mid-July, the board allowed him to take a paid sabbatical that would end in December. A month later, however, in an August 1 meeting, then-board Chair Joe Petrock announced that "given the magnitude of the findings since Dr. Jackson’s resignation," an external law firm had been hired to write a separation agreement "that would protect the university."

Asked about Jackson’s unauthorized credit card charges, Petrock said the school could ask for payment. Another measure, which involved filing a tax document, was also proffered.

In response to the findings, B-CU also immediately reduced the number of university-issued credit cards from 60 to 16, and officials assigned an employee to monitor credit card usage. It also updated its travel and credit card policies. Travel requests are now filtered through Expedia software that allows implementation of B-CU rules and restrictions.

With regards to the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges inquiry, the university hired a "crisis management" public relations firm and directed staff to begin compiling "positive" news articles.

B-CU eventually reached record enrollment for the school’s 2017 fall semester, surpassing 4,000 students. 

But Carter-Scott, who has served as board chair for less than two weeks, said trustees never found out why the enrollment numbers from Jackson were so inaccurate. She also didn’t have details on specifics of the credit card charges.

"Some people can say, ‘You should’ve pushed harder.’ Well you can only push so far," Scott said. "Short of going in there to someone’s office and demanding that they show you data … why would we even begin to think that we would be misled or given inaccurate information. Who goes in thinking that?"

A board divided

As McCray tells it, in the case of the $306 million dorm deal, Jackson would "strategically" remove key staff, such as attorneys and accountants, when they raised questions or opposed him. With his subordinates out of the way, all Jackson had to do was convince the board, McCray said.

Jackson would sway the board often by appealing to their religious beliefs, McCray said. And when that didn’t work, he employed other methods, McCray said.

"Jackson had a way of buying people, and when I say ‘buying,’… I mean Dr. Jackson gave people honorary doctorate degrees almost routinely," McCray said, adding that naming rights were commonly doled out.

McCray said Jackson also offered him an honorary degree — about an hour after he had spoken out on the dorm deal. McCray said he declined because he didn’t feel he earned it.

"His words to me were, ‘Trustee, I understand, but if you ever change your mind just let me know. I can arrange that,'" McCray said. "Almost everybody on the board Dr. Jackson did something for in some form or fashion. What happens is, it makes it difficult to speak out against someone who has done something gratuitously for you."

Jackson created an environment of infighting among trustees, McCray said.

"There was a problem on the board and this problem in large part was manufactured or created by Hakim Lucas and Dr. Jackson," McCray said. "There was almost a divide on the board. We had people who … felt as though we were troublemakers because we asked the tough questions."

Former B-CU trustee Audley Coakley, who served from 2008 to 2017, recalled his time on the board when the dorm deal was in motion.

"I think everybody was misled," Coakley said. "I had him (Jackson) under scrutiny for a long time, and I didn’t believe a damn thing that he was saying. I knew it all and I’ve been a thorn in his side throughout this process."

When The News-Journal attempted to contact Jackson, he answered the phone but then remained silent. Jackson did not answer or return an immediate followup call.

Those who dared to speak out against Jackson, even in the face of mounting evidence, were chastised, McCray said.

"Petrock, on the day I called for a forensic audit, he was disrespectful, he was short and he was hostile toward me," McCray said. "He shut me down and wouldn’t let me speak."

Petrock referred calls to an external public relations firm.

McCray said that when he brought up concerns on the dorm deal in 2014, Carter-Scott asserted he was on a "witch hunt" to get Jackson.

At the board’s October 2017 meeting, Trustee Nelson Adams asked that the official record reflect that McCray "was correct in requesting for a forensic audit on the residence hall projects."

Jackson's last day in office 

On July 11, the day the board decided Jackson’s fate and a day after what would’ve been Bethune’s 142nd birthday, questions were raised regarding unrestricted funds overseen by Lucas’s department. As with other matters, Jackson explained it away.

"This structure is typical of colleges and reported that there are no problems in this area, as evidenced by clean audits," Jackson told the board.

However, Carter-Scott said that the minutes only show Jackson’s response and not the board’s, though she couldn’t recall how the board replied.

"I don’t think that we just accepted that," she said.

Throughout the meeting, trustees struggled to define a line between their allegiance to Jackson and their duty to B-CU.

At the meeting, Petrock spoke about news reports on the dorm deal, complaints of the school’s leadership, and a planned alumni protest. But he also reminded the board just "how far along" it had come under the leadership President Jackson, before then urging trustees of the importance of carrying out their fiduciary responsibilities.

In the end, the board voted 18 to 7 in favor of accepting Jackson’s resignation.