ATLANTA
Clark Atlanta University Professor Lebone Mobeti settled in for what he figured would be a long term as chairman of the school’s engineering department when he took over the post in 2004.
Instead, a year later he found out school officials were disbanding the department.
The reason — school officials were facing a $7.5 million debt and figured the engineering department and the library sciences program should be ended to save money.
“The department was a revenue source for the school,” says Mobeti, noting that the engineering program brought in nearly $1.8 million in research dollars, grants and other revenue annually.
“So it was a decision made without a full accounting with the facts,” he says. “Why would you cut a revenue-producing program if you’re cutting costs?”
To keep the program going, Mobeti and a group of professors and students have sued CAU officials, claiming they failed to follow proper processes in their decision to eliminate the program.
