Students protest at Coe College after Black trustee resigns

By RYAN J. FOLEY
Associated Press

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Alumni and students are protesting Coe College’s treatment of a prominent Black trustee who has resigned after criticizing the school’s recent presidential selection process as lacking in diversity. Darryl Banks, a 1972 graduate who had served on its Board of Trustees for four decades, submitted his resignation last month, weeks after the board named David Hayes as 16th president of Coe, a private liberal arts school in Cedar Rapids. In a resignation letter, Banks described a tense Oct. 1 board meeting in which he said he articulated “diversity and inclusions concerns” about how the presidential search committee operated on behalf of trustees of color, and was called a liar in response.