As of late February 2025, serious accusations have been directed at Berea College’s Campus Activity Board (also known as CAB) leaders. A poster on Fizz—a social media platform geared toward campus communities where anyone can post anonymously—made a series of enigmatic posts on the night of the 17th regarding the imminent fall of CAB and a revelation of the alleged truth come midnight.
CAB is a student organization on campus that plans and hosts a range of student activities to bring the campus community of students together, or even simply enabling students to have a good time. With CAB hosting a wide variety of events throughout each academic year, it’s impossible for students on campus to not have at least heard of them. However, students not involved with CAB sparsely know its inner workings, which made the allegations against CAB’s leaders all the more shocking.
Just before midnight of the 18th arrived, the anonymous poster posted a 4-page document outlining the internal issues with CAB, outlining it into six categories. From “Exploiting Student Labor” and “Favoritism” to “Defending Discrimination” and “Blackmail and Retaliation,” the accusations were staggering and immediately took the Berea College campus community on Fizz by storm.
A vast majority of the allegations were pointed at Charles Saunders, Associate Director of Student Involvement and Engagement and the staff advisor at CAB. One such accusation blames Saunders for overturning the termination of a student’s labor contract with CAB for making discriminatory remarks toward another student. Allegedly, this was done because Saunders favored the fired student.
Another accusation delves into an alleged plot by Saunders to “wipe CAB clean,” with Saunders allegedly issuing write-ups to students over an unknown situation and extorting students to prohibit them from working for CAB again. This was allegedly done because student workers at CAB, affectionately dubbed “cabbies” by the post’s author, weren’t listening to Saunders’ leadership. According to this same source, Saunders only relented and stopped this alleged practice when college administration and the Labor Department cracked down on it.
This allegation accompanies others directed at the Office of Student Involvement and Engagement itself, wherein it was accused of berating and threatening retaliation toward CAB’s leadership for completing their work short of anything but perfection. When all of these accusations are placed together, it all may seem fairly grim, but reactions among the student body are mixed. Some are decrying Saunders while others are coming to his defense, denouncing both sides, or refraining from choosing a side at all. With the weight of these accusations, it is important to approach them with both compassion and skepticism, which is the exact approach we at BCNR are taking concerning these allegations.
To glean some insight from the anonymous poster, a member of the BCNR team hosted an interview with them on the Fizz platform. The following screenshots come directly from that interview, providing some helpful clarification and context behind these heavy allegations pitted against CAB’s uppermost leaders.
In addition to this interview, Charles Saunders was invited to speak for himself regarding these accusations. Saunders emphasized the importance of using “official channels for formal complaints,” noting that these channels are pivotal for ensuring that any such concerns are addressed in an impartial and timely manner.
“I also want to acknowledge that anonymous posts on social media can be challenging for everyone involved,” Saunders writes. “They can make it difficult for leadership to investigate and respond, and they can also have unintended consequences for individuals and the community.”
We at BCNR intend to keep the campus community informed as the situation develops.
Comments