Skip to content
ADVERTISEMENT
Sign In
  • Sections
    • News
    • Advice
    • The Review
  • Topics
    • Data
    • Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
    • Finance & Operations
    • International
    • Leadership & Governance
    • Teaching & Learning
    • Scholarship & Research
    • Student Success
    • Technology
    • Transitions
    • The Workplace
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Special Issues
    • Podcast: College Matters from The Chronicle
  • Newsletters
  • Virtual Events
  • Ask Chron
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Professional Development
    • Career Resources
    • Virtual Career Fair
  • More
  • Sections
    • News
    • Advice
    • The Review
  • Topics
    • Data
    • Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
    • Finance & Operations
    • International
    • Leadership & Governance
    • Teaching & Learning
    • Scholarship & Research
    • Student Success
    • Technology
    • Transitions
    • The Workplace
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Special Issues
    • Podcast: College Matters from The Chronicle
  • Newsletters
  • Virtual Events
  • Ask Chron
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Professional Development
    • Career Resources
    • Virtual Career Fair
    Upcoming Events:
    Hands-On Career Preparation
    An AI-Driven Work Force
    Alternative Pathways
Sign In
Leadership and Governance

President of Struggling Majority-White HBCU Quits After Battling Faculty

By Eric Kelderman November 3, 2023
Bluefield State University President Robin Capehart at the school in Bluefield, W.Va., on April 4, 2023. (Chris Jackson for The Chronicle)
Robin Capehart, president of Bluefield State U.Chris Jackson for The Chronicle

Robin C. Capehart, the embattled president of West Virginia’s Bluefield State University who fought publicly with faculty members amid desperate efforts to restore its finances and redeem its HBCU identity, will retire at the end of the calendar year.

Capehart, who did not respond to a request for comment, announced his retirement at the university’s Board of Governors meeting on Thursday afternoon.

“The board is extremely grateful to Robin Capehart for his dedicated service to this institution,” Charlie Cole, its chairman, said in a statement issued by the university.

To continue reading for FREE, please sign in.

Sign In

Or subscribe now to read with unlimited access for as low as $10/month.

Don’t have an account? Sign up now.

A free account provides you access to a limited number of free articles each month, plus newsletters, job postings, salary data, and exclusive store discounts.

Sign Up

Robin C. Capehart, the embattled president of West Virginia’s Bluefield State University who fought publicly with faculty members amid desperate efforts to restore its finances and redeem its HBCU identity, will retire at the end of the calendar year.

Capehart, who did not respond to a request for comment, announced his retirement at the university’s Board of Governors meeting on Thursday afternoon.

“The board is extremely grateful to Robin Capehart for his dedicated service to this institution,” Charlie Cole, its chairman, said in a statement issued by the university.

Capehart was hired as interim president in January 2019, when the university’s enrollment was in steep decline and its finances a wreck. Named to the permanent post a few months later, Capehart sought to tackle those problems, but he clashed early and often with faculty members, who charged that the president had not involved them in major academic shifts, such as overhauling the university’s curriculum and designing a new process for post-tenure review.

Instead of engaging his critics privately or at Faculty Senate meetings, Capehart began a public Substack newsletter. In a half-dozen posts from November 2022 to February 2023, he labeled them, among other things, “lost souls” and “a small oligarchy” … “who are chronically miserable — and aren’t happy unless they’re unhappy.”

After complaints about leadership elections, the university’s board dissolved the Faculty Senate. When several faculty members complained to the university’s accreditor that Capehart had trampled on shared governance and academic freedom, he named them in a universitywide email and took once again to Substack, questioning whether they had committed what he described as “academic dishonesty.”

Capehart also suspended a professor from teaching for several months after he heard a recording of that instructor’s use of profanity to portray the difference between the Athenians and the Spartans during a lecture about the Peloponnesian War. The suspension defied the advice of the provost and two faculty members who had investigated the incident.

Unfinished Business

Meanwhile, Capehart struggled to get a dormitory project off the ground that he had envisioned as a way to improve campus life and restore the university’s legacy as a historically Black institution. All dorms were closed after a bomb exploded in the gymnasium, in 1968, resulting in a mass exodus of Black students. Shortly after he was appointed president, Capehart promised that he would build new on-campus housing.

While the dorm was being built, the university renovated a hospital almost a mile from campus to provide nearly 200 rooms for students and a cafeteria. That solved the demand for housing, but the construction site on campus has remained an eyesore for more than two years as work ceased. Capehart and other university officials cited soaring costs and problems with underground utilities as reasons they had halted construction. The board has now pledged to beautify the construction site, but without any plans to finish the project.

ADVERTISEMENT

While the board members expressed support for Capehart during his tenure, the university’s accreditor, the Higher Learning Commission, eventually took notice and made a campus visit in September to investigate complaints and consider whether Bluefield State was meeting standards of governance.

This week, faculty members who felt targeted by Capehart expressed some relief at the news of his departure, but said the board needs to show its own commitment to improving relations with faculty and staff members.

Capehart’s departure “can be a turning point” for the university, said Amanda Matoushek, a professor of psychology, “if the board will support bringing back an environment of shared governance and open communication.”

Matoushek, an outspoken critic of Capehart, was called out by the president in an email after she filed a complaint with the accreditor.

ADVERTISEMENT

Cole credited Capehart with improving the university’s financial condition and enrollment, along with the addition of several athletic teams and a graduate-degree program.

Capehart told the board he was ready to spend more time with his wife, a former faculty member at Bluefield State who is now a clinical instructor at East Tennessee State University.

“I’m newly married,” Capehart was quoted as saying in the university statement, “and want to spend time with my wife, who has taken advantage of an opportunity in Tennessee, and frankly, I miss her.”

We welcome your thoughts and questions about this article. Please email the editors or submit a letter for publication.
Tags
Leadership & Governance Assessment & Accreditation Academic Freedom
Share
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Email
Eric Kelderman
About the Author
Eric Kelderman
Eric Kelderman covers issues of power, politics, and purse strings in higher education. You can email him at eric.kelderman@chronicle.com, or find him on Twitter @etkeld.
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

More News

Collage of charts
Data
How Faculty Pay and Tenure Can Change Depending on Academic Discipline
Vector illustration of two researcher's hands putting dollar signs into a beaker leaking green liquid.
'Life Support'
As the Nation’s Research-Funding Model Ruptures, Private Money Becomes a Band-Aid
Photo-based illustration of scissors cutting through a flat black and white university building and a landscape bearing the image of a $100 bill.
Budget Troubles
‘Every Revenue Source Is at Risk’: Under Trump, Research Universities Are Cutting Back
Photo-based illustration of the Capitol building dome topping a jar of money.
Budget Bill
Republicans’ Plan to Tax Higher Ed and Slash Funding Advances in Congress

From The Review

Photo-based illustration of the sculpture, The Thinker, interlaced with anotehr image of a robot posed as The Thinker with bits of binary code and red strips weaved in.
The Review | Essay
What I Learned Serving on My University’s AI Committee
By Megan Fritts
Illustration of a Gold Seal sticker embossed with President Trump's face
The Review | Essay
What Trump’s Accreditation Moves Get Right
By Samuel Negus
Illustration of a torn cold seal sticker embossed with President Trump's face
The Review | Essay
The Weaponization of Accreditation
By Greg D. Pillar, Laurie Shanderson

Upcoming Events

Ascendium_06-10-25_Plain.png
Views on College and Alternative Pathways
Coursera_06-17-25_Plain.png
AI and Microcredentials
  • Explore Content
    • Latest News
    • Newsletters
    • Letters
    • Free Reports and Guides
    • Professional Development
    • Virtual Events
    • Chronicle Store
    • Chronicle Intelligence
    • Jobs in Higher Education
    • Post a Job
  • Know The Chronicle
    • About Us
    • Vision, Mission, Values
    • DEI at The Chronicle
    • Write for Us
    • Work at The Chronicle
    • Our Reporting Process
    • Advertise With Us
    • Brand Studio
    • Accessibility Statement
  • Account and Access
    • Manage Your Account
    • Manage Newsletters
    • Individual Subscriptions
    • Group and Institutional Access
    • Subscription & Account FAQ
  • Get Support
    • Contact Us
    • Reprints & Permissions
    • User Agreement
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • California Privacy Policy
    • Do Not Sell My Personal Information
1255 23rd Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20037
© 2025 The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Chronicle of Higher Education is academe’s most trusted resource for independent journalism, career development, and forward-looking intelligence. Our readers lead, teach, learn, and innovate with insights from The Chronicle.
Follow Us
  • twitter
  • instagram
  • youtube
  • facebook
  • linkedin