Johnson O. Akinleye, chancellor of North Carolina Central University in Durham, has announced that he will step down at the end of the academic year. He was appointed the twelfth chancellor of North Carolina Central University on June 26, 2017.
“I am deeply grateful to have had the opportunity to lead this esteemed university through a period of growth and innovation, a period when the institution was primed for transformative change,” Dr. Akinleye said. “I am immensely proud and truly gratified to have worked with very talented executive staff, a supportive board of trustees, a dedicated faculty and staff and thousands of caring and dedicated alumni across the nation and worldwide during the past eight-plus years.”
Dr. Akinleye joined NCCU as provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs in February 2014, then assumed the role of acting chancellor in August 2016 and interim chancellor in December 2016, before his appointment as chancellor.
Before coming to NCCU, Dr. Akinleye had been associate vice chancellor for academic programs at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. Earlier in his career, he was vice president for administration and chief operating officer at what is now Edward Waters University, a historically Black educational institution in Jacksonville, Florida. He has also held faculty and/or administrative posts at Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach, Florida, and Bowie State University in Maryland.
Dr. Akinleye is a graduate of Alabama A&M University, where he majored in telecommunications. He earned a master’s degree in media technology from Alabama A&M and a Ph.D. in human communications from Howard University.
Let’s be honest for a DAMN moment. This guy, Akinleye was literally turning NCCU into a “non-HBCU” in numerous ways. For starters, when Akinleye and the unconscious Board changed the NCCU iconic image to the inverted fletching from an arrow. There was never a vote to change the historical “NCCU” to the haphazard “NC Central University” logo. This was another example of administrative malfeasance by Akinleye and his minions. More important, under Akinleye’s tenure he literally turned NCCU into an employment goldmine for ‘African, Caribbean, Indians (from the continent) and Asians. For those who dissent, you need to recognize that HBCUs were created for native born Black Americans and all others need to recognize this fact because there’s no reciprocity at the HWCUs, HSIs, or TCUs. If Marcus Garvey can say “Africa for the Africans” then certainly native-born Black Americans can emphatically say “HBCUs for native-born Black Americans”. As such, Akinleye decision to step down couldn’t have come sooner at NCCU. Adios.