Sorry, Bill, but I got curious and did some googling. I knew nothing about Ethelbert Miller, and a check indicated that he is super-established, very well regarded, and a "player" both as a poet and a mentor. However, it also indicates that he has had particular and serious communications problems with Howard University which go back at least fifteen years.
Check out this 2000 article on Miller from the
Washington Post. The article is extremely flattering - as a matter of fact,
I found it on Miller's web site - but scroll down about 3/4 of the way to the section headed
The School. The article makes it clear that - even fifteen years ago - there was a huge gap, and bitterness, between the poet and the university; and you can read whatever hidden messages you want into the statements from all sides. But I think there is a hell of a lot more to this situation than the recent article (also from the
Washington Post, but by a different write) you quote indicates.