VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. — Bethune-Cookman University students are pushing for change and on Wednesday they said they already began to see it. This comes days after protests about dirty facilities and outrage over the handling of the football head coach position — where NFL Hall of Famer Ed Reed was expected to become the next head coach.

Vice President of Student Government Association at BCU Janiya Jones explained she saw health inspectors and mold inspectors on campus Wednesday.

“We hate our school being in bad press but this is something that needed to be said,” added Jones. “Now that it is being put in the light, we are starting to slowly see things change.”

Jones has lived on the Daytona Beach campus for three years. The junior at BCU believes while things could have been handled differently, she thinks Reed’s message was important, and that he should be reinstated.

“He is very passionate about what he does. It is deeper than football,” explained Jones. “He was actually bonding with us. We were even prepared to do a campus clean-up with him.”

While the school’s interim president Lawrence M. Drake II said the college is moving on and meetings are happening between leaders and students about concerns.

“One of our commands was communication. Communicate with us, let us know that we are being heard this is happening or this might not be happening but will happen,” said Jones.

Jones adds once this issue was publicly shared with the masses, they seized the opportunity and platform to stand up for this issue. She said she understands change doesn’t happen overnight and they have a long way to go.

On Saturday, Reed walked away from Bethune-Cookman in tears Saturday following a 15-minute goodbye in front of players, parents and even Colorado coach Deion Sanders.

Reed made it clear he wasn’t leaving on his own accord.

The Ed Reed Foundation announced on social media Saturday that the university declined to ratify Reed’s contract and “won’t make good on the agreement we had in principle, which had provisions and resources best needed to support the student athletes.”

The decision came less than a week after Reed ripped the school in a profanity-laced social media post that went viral. He accused Bethune-Cookman of having a dirty campus and failing to clean his office before he arrived. He threatened to leave then, saying he was having to “clear out trash” while not even being under contract.

Reed apologized the following day for “my lack of professionalism” and addressed it again Saturday.

“I’m a good man, not perfect,” he said. “We all make mistakes, and I apologized for mine.”

Reed pointed out some of the good he had already done at Bethune-Cookman, including clearing land for a practice field — progress that could be seen from Reed’s office window. He also said no school should have an athletic director who also serves as a head coach, which was a clear shot at Bethune-Cookman AD Reggie Theus, who coaches the men’s basketball team.

“We’ve been around here trying to change things,” Reed said. “My vision for change, probably moving too fast for a lot of people. I’m not withdrawing my name, as they said. They don’t want me here. They do not want me here because I tell the truth.”

The Associated Press contributed to this story.