Rattler Nation has learned that the interim president has agreed to settle a pending grievance with the SBI 8. The settlement calls for the SBI 8 to receive one year of salary. While the University will still layoff the SBI 8, the employees will be entitled to recall rights for up to two years.
Representatives of the FAMU UFF said, "it is now apparent that the SBI 8 were, in fact, wrongrully terminated for political reasons."
Somebody help me out on this one...
ReplyDeleteWhat were those "political reasons"? Can you give it to me straight? Of course, I know that the interim prez is bound by Jeb and so many others on the board are as well. But what, specifically, are those "political reasons"?
Jeb? I doubt it. A few weeks ago, he told me that Cast-hell is a political liability! A bigger mistake than Corbin!
ReplyDeleteHe also added that Cast-hell has pissed off his staff and refuses to provide requested information or return calls.
When it comes to Castell V. Bryant, I suggest that you don't doubt anything. The governor may have told you one thing, but when it comes to politics and Florida A&M University, I seriously doubt that he's giving up the political verbal goods. He had a hand in her appointment, certainly, and knew of her deeds and misdeeds in Miami, his home city. Jeb Bush is blowing smoke up folks' arses.
ReplyDeleteTo 9/18/2006 4:43 PM,
ReplyDeleteThe fact that Jeb views Castell as a political liability is well known across Florida's Capitol Hill. Not only is she a bad news magnate, but she is outright nasty towards the governor's key education advisers. Ask any one of them. They are surprisingly frank about this issue.
Bryant thinks she can get away with it all because Jeb is on his way out. However, she has grossly underestimated the situation. Jeb is determined to leave the Governor's Mansion with a strong education record and is not going to let Bryant continue to be stain on those efforts.
Bryant has crossed the wrong politicos this time. Those of us on who are part of The Resistance inside FAMU need to keep up the pressure in order to push for Bryant's day of reckoning to come sooner than later.
What is Bryant's "day of reckoning" and how might that day be implemented?
ReplyDeleteI do know that CVB is one nasty woman, and many--not all--those administratively associated with her are just as nasty, especially Liz McBride. Cold, callous, abrupt, condescending, heartless, arrogant, ill-mannered. CVB, DA and LMcB. All from the same cloth.
ReplyDeleteMy question is, and it has nothing to do with how they are ill-running the University, but how in the world does one get to this degree of nastiness in one's lifetime. Who on God's earth is CVB mad with, because surely there must be someone that she's terribly, terribly angry with to be able to do so much damage with so little compassion to som many people. It just simply boggle the mind. And on top of that, she's so arrongantly hostile every step of the way, no matter if the situation calls for a little compassion and understanding or not. Granted, many things needed changing at FAMU, but I'm with Barney Bishop on this one: You mean to tell me that EVERYBODY was doing something wrong? NOBODY was doing the right thing? Unbelievable.
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteTo 9/18/2006 4:43 PM,
The fact that Jeb views Castell as a political liability is well known across Florida's Capitol Hill. Not only is she a bad news magnate, but she is outright nasty towards the governor's key education advisers. Ask any one of them. They are surprisingly frank about this issue.
Bryant thinks she can get away with it all because Jeb is on his way out. However, she has grossly underestimated the situation. Jeb is determined to leave the Governor's Mansion with a strong education record and is not going to let Bryant continue to be stain on those efforts.
Bryant has crossed the wrong politicos this time. Those of us on who are part of The Resistance inside FAMU need to keep up the pressure in order to push for Bryant's day of reckoning to come sooner than later.
9/18/2006 5:42 PM
RIGHT! Jeb Bush promised to keep his foot on FAMU's neck as long as he was governor. Looks like that foot is still on FAMU's neck. CVB is just a pawn.
Don't look for any changes at FAMU in the positive direction until we get the right governor. The way Charlie Crist is singing this mantra about "Keep Jeb Bush Educational Agenda Alive" he has definitely lost my vote and quite a few others across the State of Florida. Anybody that is pro-education and votes for Charlie Crist should look for more of the same. Florida ranked 47th is fighting states like Mississippi for the bottom of the barrell.
This is Jeb's legacy that Charlie Crist wants to keep alive.
Those of us on who are part of The Resistance inside FAMU need to keep up the pressure in order to push for Bryant's day of reckoning to come sooner than later.
ReplyDeleteI love it! The FAMU Underground.
They wuz fired cuz they didnt have qualifications. SBI cant grow with the dead weight. now that dead weight has to be carried another YEAR? What de hel r u people thinkin? Its not political re: Jeb.. its political re: mz provost and mz new sbi hyphenated dean. They aint got the backbone to stant against the union thugs.
ReplyDeleteUh oh. Rufus Little is on the message board again...
ReplyDeleteWell we don't have to wonder where he is.
ReplyDeleteJeb doesn't really think of FAMU as a threat to his educational legacy.
ReplyDeleteThink about it, all the other Florida schools are kicking natural ass with booming enrollment and whatnot. Jeb has already reversed himself with some racebased scholarships.
And "while on Jeb's watch", FAMU nailed the #1 School for Blacks. That last bit alone shores things up. Only if FAMU loses her accred, which it is NOT in danger of losing, would Jeb really feel the heat. Right now, this is just a school that had kick arse days and is a little lost after it's leader left. Nothing more.
Please, in higher education circles, JEB's educational legacy is a joke.
ReplyDeleteOnly in the "blinded by hate for anything Bush" circles is Jebs accomplishments a joke. As an educator, a professor, I can plainly see that Florida's Universities are in better shape than they were 6 years ago. I understand that the holder of the office of the gov may or may not have been correlated with the success of our University System, but it is customary for the Gov to get the blame when things go bad (even if he was in no way responsible) and it is also our custom to give the Gov credit when things go well in Florida. Unless of course you are blinded by hate.
ReplyDeleteIn MY circle of higher educators, we think that the University system is healthier and more viabrant than it was when Jeb took office. Is that his fault? I dont know. But I am not going to deny the man the priviledge of taking credit for any positive changes in Florida under his watch.
In my circle of higher education friends at UF and USF, the University system has lost ground over the last seven years. If you compare the amount of federal dollars that have been awarded to Florida schools (percent wise) over the last seven years, you will notice a significant decline at the Florida institutions. This was certainly not expected since Jeb has a direct line to the Whitehouse. We must realize that most federal grants are very much politically-based. When we speak about better-off, what are you using as a comparison? Although there are many other indicators used to measure accomplishments, I think funding would rank as #1. If UF and USF have not realized significant funding changes, I would tend to think that the other schools in the system collectively would not show that Florida is ahead of such giants as N.C. and VA.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...Only in the "blinded by hate for anything Bush" circles is Jebs accomplishments a joke. As an educator, a professor, I can plainly see that Florida's Universities are in better shape than they were 6 years ago. I understand that the holder of the office of the gov may or may not have been correlated with the success of our University System, but it is customary for the Gov to get the blame when things go bad (even if he was in no way responsible) and it is also our custom to give the Gov credit when things go well in Florida. Unless of course you are blinded by hate.
ReplyDeleteIn MY circle of higher educators, we think that the University system is healthier and more viabrant than it was when Jeb took office. Is that his fault? I dont know. But I am not going to deny the man the priviledge of taking credit for any positive changes in Florida under his watch.
9/19/2006 7:38 PM
^^^And we can surmise that you run in the same higher educational circles as, CastHell, Debra Austin, Vivian Hobbs, Altha Manning, and Janie Greenleaf. A pretty tight and elite group. Next youll be singing Adam Herbert's praises.
Yes, and there are actually FAMUans who are lobbying to get Adam Herbert placed in president's chair. We seriously have some dangerous members in our own FAMU family.
ReplyDeleteWhy are Rattlers actually trying to get a candidate who fought tooth and nail against FAMU developing new Ph.D. programs? It took a nasty public battle and marches to get Herbert to consent to the meager Comprehensive/Doctoral designation (which was just a little better than his original Comprehensive only plan for FAMU).
Actually I agree that most schools are better off today...at the expense of FAMU.
ReplyDeleteFAMU has not grown or proliferated during this administration due to malfeasence and dysfunction that has been brewing for decades. The only thing Jeb did was let the wound fester.
Its nice to have a government official to blame when the sum of our collective choices produces rotten fruit.
ReplyDeleteHowever, FAMU will continue to flounder regardless of who is president, governor, or tax-collector unless...
Unless we do some self cleansing and purge ourselves of the incompetent and the apathetic. What FAMU is sorely lacking today is an atmosphere where people take pride in doing their job well. So many employees that I encounter treat FAMU like a welfare check. If they show up and do a half-ass job.. or even just show up, they continue to collect a check. There is a cultural problem that plagues the university --- don't you dare tell me its a black thing....its an "I'm a selfish child that doesn't give a crap about anything but myself" thing that is fostered by a "I don't give enough crap about FAMU to fire your lasy incompetent butt" thing exasperated by a "you can't fire that lazy incompetent apathetic leech of an employee because your yellow-bellied spine-less ass is too scared to confront your local union thug who doesnt give a DAMN about famu and whose only purpose is to drain the university coffers dry pissing it all away protecting worthless employees so he can get a percentage of their salary" thing.
Thats the thing.
Solution: Do not renew the union contract. Fire every single employee from the top down and make them interview for their job.
^^^Okay, and your point is -- every employee is a lazy ass @ FAMU and the only one doing any work is Castell.
ReplyDeletePlease!
NO.. the point is that there is a LOT of dead weight. The only equitable thing to do is to fire EVERYONE. Then let people compete for the jobs and rehire only the productive, capable, and competent.
ReplyDeleteThere were and are many hard-working, capable, and competent employees at FAMU. It's obvious that Bryant's hires in the areas of recruitment and research are not better than the ones she fired, because FAMU's enrollment and research dollars have declined.
ReplyDeleteFAMU has a president who sees employees as mere firing objects that have no right to due process or even a fair evaluation.
Yeah, FAMU has a number of competent professors and other such. The problem lies within the leadership of the school and the students. FAMU's rush to prepare itself for accreditation eliminated some of the better elements of the Business school.
ReplyDeleteThe SBI 8 they fired were all Professional Development teachers. The PD program is one of those that needs to be fixed badly. Two credit classes which require more out of class time than most other classes. The program's leadership, presently, is not in capable hands. You cannot expect students to drop their plans with two to three day notices of close-up examinations with companies who have aboslutely no interest in the Black Community. Check the history of the companies who visit and see if even half of them make a concerted effort on a continuing basis.
How many students would show up to those close ups if it weren't required for a class? If they weren't held in random places each time, it might be easier to justify the request. There are students who work, especially in a business shcool where you also have a number of young entrepreneurs who have already started their own business - but the professors tell their students that work is not as important as the class. I guess, as long as you get an A in the class, it doesn't matter whether you have a place to live, or food to eat. If you're familiar with these nothing books where they have students fill out after meeting other FAMU students and faculty, then you realize how tedious it is. And why is it limited to only FAMU students? Are we learning to network only within this small community, or are we learning to network that would be advantageous to our goals?
What has happened at FAMU is the result of what has been happening all around America. The education system is not working for Blacks. How good is Florida's education system when it consistantly ranks in the bottom tier for graduation rates? Additionally, if the education which FAMU offers is no different from that of other universities, then why attend FAMU? You have to answer that question before you can answer that enrollment problem as well.
This discussion isn't about the Florida Universities, it is about FAMU, and the job that Jeb has done when it comes to African Americans is pitiful. He fought the class size amendment we sponsored, pushing off the enactment of it for the next governor. Who is part of this Resistance at FAMU? Where are the protests? Where are the students handing out flyers making sure that others are aware of the situation going on? The only flyer you'll recieve is one telling you where the party is.