"COB is a ghetto dump"..... that can compete internationally with other colleges and universities.

"COB is a ghetto dump"..... that is an accredited college, you can lookup what accredited college means.

"COB is a ghetto dump"..... that produces capable men and women who enter the workforce around the world and hold their own.

"COB is a ghetto dump"..... that is networked and partnered with colleges and universities around the world.

"COB is a ghetto dump"..... that is about to establish it's own Masters degree curriculum, something not many other colleges do.

"COB is a ghetto dump"..... that provides those who seek quality tertiary level education at an affordable price.

"COB is a ghetto dump"..... that has non Bahamian students who skip over colleges and universities in their country to come here.

"COB is a ghetto dump"..... that has companies both local and internationally (see microsoft as an example) that come to the college to recruit students.

"COB is a ghetto dump"..... that despite being a ghetto dump has accomplished all that.

The College of The Bahamas is a ghetto dump is certainly your opinion you are entitled to. No matter how erroneous it is and we will all respectively agree to disagree with you

The student's themselves know this better than anyone. Even when COB obtains university status, they still have to use that degree when applying for jobs locally/internationally or applying for other degrees including masters. They understand the risks better than anyone that if other institutions hold Dr. Smith to a fault for a plagiarized speech their degree will be mocked or even disregarded. But the faculty and students are still willing to to take that bet with Dr. Smith. The COB community understands that out of all the representatives who applied for role of president, Dr. Smith will get them where they need to be. The students showed during the budget issues and former President Boze's tenure that they will not be let themselves be lead astray or have their degrees cheapened by anyone. They understand that the Academic community will/should look past Smith's speech incident. Which the community did as he held another presidential role at a tertiary institution after the COB speech debacle.

During the presidential search each candidate made their case to students and faculty, Dr. Smiths vision for COB of the future even convinced me and a fellow "stubborn" friend that he was the man to get the job done.

Rather than all these outside sources, ask those directly involved if they want Dr. Smith for President. That is, only the student's opinion on the matter should count. As far as i can recall the academics at the College of The Bahamas have no qualms with him being president, not even the very outspoken and "students first" Student Union President

Mr. Smiths plagiarism was not citing a source he used...in a speech during his speech.

your statement is so full of contradictions that i am having a hard time summarizing it but here goes.

"when does a person have the right to object to public worship ceremonies in our country "
you answered your self here "right to practice his/her religion"

"what grounds beyond their word without proof that he/she really belongs to that religion"
The onus of responsibility to provide proof is not on them it is on their accuser. If you try to force someone to prove themselves as part of a religion, that is religious persecution. Besides, if i ask you to prove you are a christian will you pull out your bible and recite verses or introduce me to your church congregation? That's not enough as anyone studying religious knowledge can do that.

"We may have a lot of persons masquerading as "Jews" or "Muslims" or "Atheists""
To masquerade in public as a member of another religion or a non believer is public denial of belonging to any other religious group. No one is going to do that and then show up to their religious mass later on. It's improbable.

"objecting to Christian ceremonies for no good reason .......... like children in school or workplace prayers etc."
See international law on being forced to attend religious gathering or be penalized as religious discrimination and unlawful termination/workplace discrimination. Good reason provided.

"We seem to be in an age of personal privilege without true accountability."
Freedom OF Religion is a right not a privilege. It applies to both being free to practice a religion of choice AND freedom from religion.

should not a person's religious confession align with his/her actions?????
In this case his religious confession DID align with his/her action and he did not take part in a christian prayer as a Muslim. My religious confession or rather lack thereof aligns with my actions as i do no partake in any religious gathering. if my friends or family pray i simply wait for them to be done if its going to be short or leave if it looks like it will drag on.

Need i remind you of the reason the original settlers of The Bahamas Islands, The Eleutheran Adventurers, came here? It was to escape religious persecution!

I'll be honest, i wanted to defend him.....but he was entirely in the wrong. He broke ranks, plain and simple. All he had to do was stand there and respect another religion. He did not have to recite the prayer or anything else. Simply be a disciplined Marine and not break ranks. I am not a Christian or Muslim, I am an Atheist. If a religious person of any religion is holding a prayer that does not even last more than 2-3 minutes i will show them respect and wait it out

Mr. Thompson despite what you may think is a very competent in man in both his roles as teacher, former Head of the school of Business and auditor. To claim otherwise without facts is negligent. Everything stated in the article are valid reasons for him to be critical of all those involved in the Business Office not just the VP, which he was. The majority of the "missing" cash was due to improper petty cash reporting which is very easy to do and common but certainly not evidence of criminal activity.

This program can only be voluntary not mandatory. They (the schools and Mr. Nottage) can't force the students to participate. So they will threaten expulsion or extended suspension instead of the program. The youths will obviously not care either way since they are already at risk and choose one of the former. the situation has not been resolved.

Will just have to wait and see how it turns out.

sadly, our airwing of the RBDF is very underwhelmed and , understaffed and equipment in poor state. i agree we could use rotary aircraft but first we have to get our fixed wing aircraft back to 100%

i love this line
" In fact, he said, he has helped about “three or four” other families since the Lightbourne case."

so he only helped those three or four (of the hundreds of families facing foreclosure due to mortgage) because he intervened as "prime minister" to help Lightbourne. Good Job