By: Donald V. Watkins
October 25, 2023
An Editorial Opinion
On July 13, 2022, Alabama A&M University Alabama A&M University proudly announced the appointment of Dr. John D. Jones to the position of Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs. After a review of dozens of qualified applicants, the university selected Dr. John Jones for the position. Dr. Jones was serving as Alabama A&M’s interim Associate Vice President and Dean of Graduate Studies.
Like President Daniel K. Wims, Dr. Jones has a history of improper sexual conduct on campus. Like Wims, Jones had been forced out of top-level administrative positions at three universities.
Dr. Wims was fired or otherwise removed from his position as Executive Vice President at Fort Valley State University. Wims was also asked to leave his position as Director of the Division of Agricultural Sciences and Associate Professor at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, Florida. Finally, Dr. Wims was forced out of his position as Director of the Small Farm Research and Resource Development Center at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Dr. Jones was forced out as provost and vice president for academic affairs at Fisk University (May 2021 to April 2022) and Lincoln University (Missouri). Dr. Jones does not even list the Lincoln University job on his LinkedIn page.
Dr. Jones was also reportedly forced out as Dean of Education at South Carolina State University, a position he does not list on his online biography at Alabama A&M.
Dr. Jones, who is married, was reportedly named as a respondent in at least one sexual harassment complaint at Alabama A&M and South Carolina State University. According to the complaints, Dr. Jones pressured female faculty members for sex in exchange for tenure and/or promotions. Dr. Jones reportedly denied the allegations.
Dr. Wims, who also worked at South Carolina State, reportedly knew of Dr. Jones’ propensity to solicit sex from female colleagues at the time Jones was hired for both positions at Alabama A&M. Yet, Wims did not disclose this information to his board of trustees prior to Jones' selection for either administrative position at Alabama A&M.
Wims and Jones join Alabama A&M trustee Kevin Ball in the growing cabal of male administrators and trustees who have documented histories of inappropriate advances toward women and who have nested within the university’s governance hierarchy under the protection of Daniel K. Wims.
Dr. Wims’ complaints of inappropriate sexual conduct encompass three woman and at least one male.
It appears that Alabama A&M has become the hotspot for sexual predators at HBCUs in America, thanks to a notoriously weak and compromised board of trustees.
Coming up -- Dr. Wims’ well-known “close personal relationship” with one of his trustees. It’s been an open secret in Huntsville for years.
Stay tuned!