Students have sent a petition to the chairman of Bermuda College's board of governors, protesting the sacking of maths lecturer Sue Rhodes.

The petition, which bears some 50 signatures of past, present, and "potential future'' students of Ms Rhodes, questioned the college's decision to not renew her contract which came up for review in January.

"We understand that her contract to teach at the Bermuda College is not to be renewed and that she will be terminated at the end of August, 1996,'' the students wrote. "We also understand that there is no qualified Bermudian available to replace her.

"We believe that the college is trying to improve the quality of its courses and therefore find this action rather surprising.'' The students also noted that Ms Rhodes was described in the college brochure as "an enthusiastic and dynamic lecturer who brings life to her subject, and explains difficult concepts in an easy-to-grasp manner''.

"We have found this to be true, and all appreciate her patience, and her willingness to give her own time to help those of us who found maths or statistics confusing,'' they added.

"At a time when enthusiastic and caring lecturers are few and far between, we find it sad to think that the college may lose her expertise. We therefore submit this petition to the administrators of both the full-time and Adult and Continuing Education Department of the College, and request a review of this decision and hope that her contract can be extended until a suitably qualified Bermudian comes to replace her.'' Part-time student Gail Daniels also told The Royal Gazette she had mailed four completed pages of the petition to the chairman of the board of governors, James King, in June. But she had not received a response.

Ms Daniels said she also believed that more copies of the petition could be circulating.

"She was a very good teacher,'' she recalled of Ms Rhodes. "She was always patient and always made the work clear. She also provided extra tutoring if you needed it.'' A student in one of Ms Rhodes' statistics classes, Ms Daniels recalled that another student who was repeating the course after failing under a different lecturer said she understood Ms Rhodes a lot more.

"If you kept asking questions she would keep repeating the lesson over and over until you understood,'' Ms Daniels said, adding that she did not know of any complaints against Ms Rhodes.

When contacted yesterday Ms Rhodes was reluctant to speak about her situation.

But she did admit that she did not want to leave the college where she has taught for 15 years.

"Teaching is my first love,'' Ms Rhodes said. "It hurts to give this up. I consider Bermuda my home and I love what I do.'' She said she wrote a letter on May 29 to the college's board of governors, requesting that they reconsider the decision. But she said she had not heard from them.

"There's a move to upgrade lecturers qualifications,'' she pointed out. "I felt that I had upgraded my qualifications.'' But Ms Rhodes, who obtained a Masters in Management in 1994, said she was told she was not qualified because she did not have a Masters in her respective field.

Ms Rhodes is one of about a dozen of the college's 135 full-time faculty members who have left or will have to leave the college this year.

Yesterday, The Royal Gazette revealed that the college's first and only public relations officer Jan Doidge was asked to leave the college after she handed in a month's notice of resignation.

But college president George Cook has scotched reports of a major exodus of staff.

"We've had five non-Bermudian faculty members replaced,'' he earlier told The Royal Gazette . "There were also two people who were temporarily appointed and their time has ended. Three people, a faculty member and two supporting staff members, resigned. And two faculty members and a person in the administrative area retired.'' While Dr. Cook has refused to comment on individual cases, he said: "I think it's perfectly normal.

"Don't forget that some people who retire have been here a very long time, since the place started. We've reached a new plateau and some feel it is time to move on.'' College chairman James King could not be reached for comment yesterday.