David A. Thomas, Morehouse College’s president for the past seven years, told the board of trustees of the all-male, historically Black school on Friday that he will retire after the 2024-25 academic year.
Thomas’s exit from the renowned Atlanta college comes on the heels of his decision to invite President Joe Biden to campus to speak at this year’s commencement, prompting waves of protests from students, alumni and faculty.
But it also comes after more than half of the school’s ambitious $500 million capital campaign funds have been raised, while enrollment is rising and plans to break ground on several new buildings are being finalized.
Credit: Ben Gray
Credit: Ben Gray
“Morehouse is in a very strong position and that is the time for leadership transitions. Not when it’s in crisis,” Thomas said in an exclusive interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “And in 2025, I will be turning 69 years old. I have some other things I want to do while I still have the energy.”
Thomas, who would go on to call his tenure at Morehouse “challenging and fulfilling,” said he will remain in office until June 30, 2025.
Willie Woods, the chairman of the Morehouse Board of Trustees, who recruited Thomas out of Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, where he was the dean, said his departure is “bittersweet.”
“He’s been a great president. He’s done a lot of great things to make the college a better place,” said Woods, a former Harvard Business School student of Thomas’. “He had been trained at some of the best colleges in the country and he brought a lot of those best practices to Morehouse.”
Thomas’ retirement means that at least four Black colleges in Georgia — Morehouse, Paine College, Albany State University and Savannah State University — are in the process of finding new leaders. Also on Friday, Florida A&M University President Larry Robinson stepped down just months after what appeared to be a bogus $237 million donation from a Texas hemp farmer that made national headlines and is currently under investigation.
Thomas leaves as several high-profile college presidencies — which are already under intense scrutiny — are facing increased political attacks, as well as the prospect of protests and political unrest.
Since December, the presidents of Cornell, Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania each abruptly resigned or retired. Emory’s handling of a campus protest in April sparked outcry from some students and faculty and led to several no-confidence resolutions of President Gregory Fenves.
Thomas, 67, considered retiring last May, but felt he still had goals he wanted to accomplish.
In April, Morehouse announced that Biden had accepted an invitation to deliver the commencement address after several months of discussions about the idea of him speaking at the ceremony.
Several voices within the Morehouse community demanded Thomas rescind the invitation because of Biden’s support of Israel in the ongoing conflict in Gaza.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
“Biden took a lot of focus and energy, but I thought that Morehouse was the only place in the country, at that moment in higher education, other than the military academies, that could have made that happen in a way that respected everyone’s humanity,” Thomas said.
In his seven years at Morehouse, Thomas had a thing for commencement exercises, which he calls highlights of his tenure at the 157-year-old college.
In 2019, during his second commencement as president, billionaire philanthropist Robert F. Smith pledged to forgive the student debt of the entire graduating class. The gift has been estimated to be worth up to $40 million.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
“I became pretty good at making news,” Thomas mused.
When Thomas arrived on campus on New Year’s Day of 2018, it was hoped he’d be a stabilizing force. His direct predecessor, John S. Wilson, who had butted heads with some board members, was dismissed two months before his contract expired.
William Taggart, who was named the interim president, died just two months after his appointment.
The school had not recovered from the 2008 recession and enrollment was down from around 2,800 to 1,700. There hadn’t been a significant investment in infrastructure and the school had about $40 million of deferred maintenance.
“There was a sense of instability,” said Thomas, who was the first Morehouse president who didn’t attend the college since the legendary Benjamin E. Mays in 1940. “We had to settle the place down and get people focused on going forward.”
In 2020, one of his toughest early decisions as president, Thomas cut the salaries of nearly 200 employees and instituted furloughs as part of a plan to fill a budget gap caused in large part by the COVID-19 pandemic. Thomas also took a 25% pay cut in an overall move that was expected to save the school about $3.4 million.
Since then, Morehouse has made significant improvements in the campus infrastructure, and expanded academic programs, which has increased the number of students enrolling.
The school’s endowment now sits at $280 million. That is about $130 million more than it was when Thomas arrived on campus. Morehouse raised $57 million this past year.
In 2023, the school approved a $170 million project to transform the main campus. That will include a new state-of-the-art campus center and new residence halls.
“I’ve often said that we won’t know how good a president I’ve been until we see where Morehouse goes and what our students go on to do in the world,” Thomas said. “But to make that happen, you have to secure the future while you’re the current president.”
After Thomas officially retires, he plans to remain in Atlanta where he will assume a faculty position at Morehouse and help with the capital campaign he started.
He will write more, get more active on the corporate and academic boards he currently serves on, and mentor young academic leaders on the path to college presidencies.
He will summer in Rhode Island, where he just purchased a home, to be closer to his first grandchild.
HBCU leadership changes
About one-third of the nation’s historically Black colleges and universities have had leadership changes since 2022, according to some estimates. Here are some of the changes in Georgia:
July 2022 - Dr. Helene Gayle becomes president of Spelman College.
July 2023 - Cynthia Robinson Alexander began her tenure as interim President of Savannah State University. The Savannah State vacancy was created by the departure of Kimberly Ballard-Washington.
June 2024 - Cheryl Evans Jones announced her retirement as President of Paine College after five years at the Augusta school. The Board of Trustees will begin the search for a new president immediately.
July 2024 - Lawrence M. Drake II begins his service as Albany State University’s interim president. The prior president, Marion Ross Fedrick is stepping down to take a job as Georgia State University’s executive vice president and will also serve as University System of Georgia Chancellor Sonny Perdue’s senior adviser for the state’s three public HBCUs.
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