(Today's post is from our blog buddy "Angry Black Man." Check his blog out here.)Ain't this a mf bytch?!! Your favorite first lady, "Go-to-hell Castell," pulled a fast one on the Marching 100. Get this shyt: Ol' Girl decides on Thursday to impose a mf minimum grade point average (2.0) for band members. Why is Thursday important, you ask? Cuz the 100 were en route to the Motor City. They weren't even around to find out about the news. And because of her behind the back tactics, 30 members had to step down from the band's famous ranks. Fukked up, you say? That's like gettin' fired via text messaging. You couldn't give a mf some notice? An anonymous email? It's like DAT, Cassie? That's how you carryin' thangs?? I can't even get ONE semester to bring my mf grades up?
If you saw that bullshyt azz game this past Saturday in Detroit, then you saw the gaping holes in the bands' ranks wide enough for Aretha Franklin herself to step through. All this from a mf who took damn near a DECADE to complete HER 4 year degree. Come on, Cassie...did you give THEM notice that you were gonna take your sweet azz time finishing school? Was YOUR gpa above average? Was having a baby during school time part of YOUR requirement to graduate? I mean, come on. Let's be REAL.
By the way, where da HELL is the mf job announcement for the incoming president? Anybody?
- AngryBlackMan
"Interstingly enough, the GPA requirement for the band [2.5] is far and above that required of football and basketball players."
ReplyDeleteDamn, what's the GPA requirement for the football and basketball players, a 2.0???
Many of the kids who are in the band are high achievers. I can understand having a standard in terms of academics, but WTF is the required average for the dummies who play sports? Seems to me that Castell Bryant wants to ensure the football players win games, no matter how dumb the players are? Because when you start imposing gpa's, then you need to start looking at the mfs who are on the field. A win at any cost, no matter how dumb the mfs are is, apparently, all the woman cares about.
ReplyDeleteI heard they pulled 60 folks right off the bus. That is crazy, they should have told them kids in advance and not did it like that.
ReplyDeleteDamn, damn, damn! Cassie had mfs pulled off the goddamn bus?? Spike Lee wants mfs to get ON the mfing bus. Castell wants mfs to get OFF the mfer? What's up with that? This some bulls. Now, you come and tell me that Cassie was spreading cheer with some dude when she was an undergraduate? It took girlf HOW many years to get a four-year degree?? In ten years, she couldda had four mfing degrees, not just one! And now, she want to be running shit like she some kind of mfing Rhodes Scholar and shit? Mfers show be forgetting, and this mfing country-assed bytch comes from a place called mfing Bartow? Where the fukk is thid goddamn Bartow at anyhow? Ain' no place I ever heard of, and I've been to a bunch of places in Florida, 'cause I gots plenty, plenty relatives all over the state, and I ain' nevah, evah heard of this Bartow mf. And then, she ain' even got a real terminal degree to be running a school like FAMU in the first place. She got some kind of mfing Ed.D. degree. What the fukk is that? An "Eddie" degree. Give me a mfing break with this. This some bulls. This crazy-assed woman with the leatherface and 60s "do" has gots to vacate the premises. Damn, FAMU already down to mfing 11,000 students. She trying to take the school down to 5,000, like it was when she was taking them ten years to get a degree. Now, she wants to akk like she all smart and shit. Too late for that shit to happen. I believe the mfer got Alheizmer's.
ReplyDeleteThe requirement for any activity at FAMU exclusive of Greek Organizations is a 2.0 GPA.
ReplyDeleteI can't stand what the lady has done to my school however you get no arguement from me about this one.
One of the students taken off the bus was my nephew who was told by his parents not to participate in band this semester because of his grades. And he swore to them he wasn't.
If the band wants students to focus on their grades, they are going to have to pare down their appearences.
To me it is not a question of standards, it is a question of timing and image maintenance. You have to maintain standards, don't get me wrong. But gaping holes on the field does not help FAM's image. In fact, it could hurt recruiting because the 100 is a tool to get high schoolers interested in FAM. If we don't look tight, we loose face. It was a bad time to do it. Give students time to get the gpa togehter. Give the director sometime to reconstruct a program without those students. Make FAM look good pillar to post. Build up the school in every respect, the image, the morale, the students, the faculty, THE ALUMNI. Build us up or get out.
ReplyDeleteI ain' got no problem with gpa's. I suspect that the pulled students knew that they weren't suppose to be on that trip to Detroit and, being kids, they thought they wouldn't get caught. Well, bottom line is, is that they did indeed get caught. I refuse to believe that the students didn't have multiple opportunities to get their act together but simply opted to do what they wanted. You know that kids always think they can beat the system, so the act of pulling students off the bus, wll, to outsiders, it may seem like an unfortunate action and an untimely one, but I promise you, the affected students knew kn plenty time that they shouldn't have been on that bus in the first place. There had to have been some type of roster with the student's names on it, or how else would the pullers have known what students were to be asked to exit. Many of these students leave high school thinking only about "being in the band," and when they get on campus and find out, wow!, there are classes that I have to maintain and grades that I have to keep up, well, then, it's a completely different ballgame. Students must take personal responsibility for their actions or lack of actions. This isn't Kansas, Dorothy and Toto. If the pulling wasn't done at the moment of departure, then when would have beena more apporpriate time? Sometimes things have to begin when they start.
ReplyDeleteFrom what these reports say, Bryant's time and manner might
ReplyDeletehave been better. But this is college.
Far too many students think of extracurricular activities as
the center of their lives, instead of academic preparation for
a career in the real world.
I wish there was some way the prez could yank a few thousand
students off the pop-culture, MTV/BET, gangsta-crap, unreality-show, baggy men and tight women subculture.
If we could move FAMU more toward academics and less toward
being a popular culture campus -- including football and all its
props -- FAMU might attract more applicants who actually want
to come to college to learn.
Amen, to the above blogger! I teach there and I know that many, many students come there with a television show reality. They half-come to class, and when they come they are unprepared. And then, when the semester ends and they get that fateful grade, they want to whine and get all pitiful, when they know they've simply not been academically responsible. I tell them up front: You are so not in high school, and for the most part, a lot of professors simply will not listen to the pity stories that ALWAYS come at the end of the course. Castell's timing may have sent a wake-up call to the rest of the students who think that college is simply an extended period of high school. I say, on this ONE thing, give the lady props. I ain' mad atta.
ReplyDeleteI think the new standards she set for the band are higher than a 2.0 gpa and higher than that of the sports teams.
ReplyDeleteAnyway you look at it the timing was F'd up. final grades have been on since 8/3. This could have been handled better.
Then, she's asking folks to meet standards she could not meet as a student.
This woman has set out to destroy every major institution at FAMU. SBI, Pharmacy, enrollment and recruitment and now the band.
ReplyDeleteThe "Mighty Destructive Cassie" will always engage in the grand stance entrance in all her decisions. She wants the world to know that she has the power to move mountains. What greater mountain to move at this time of year than the band which was just cited by a S.C. paper as great. She just wants the world to know that no entity on the campus is greater than Cassie & Co. She is an outrageous idiot.
ReplyDeleteSee, what many of you people here fail to understand is that prior notice was given to these affected students, as way back as spring semester 2006. They had spring semester and summer semester to bring the grades, notices were given these students, and they were duly informed prior to the Detroit trip. It's not as if the woman just decided to yank a bunch of kids off the bus at the last minute. It wasn't like that at all. These students come here with only one thing on their mind: "being in the band," not being academically responsible as well as keeping up the grades. Many of these students are playing in the band with 1.50 gps's and 1.82 gpa's. That is so unacceptable. Are they not enrolleded to get an education, and not simply play in the band. Some of you bloggers have forgotten the reason these students have come to college in the first place. But I go back to my original argument: the students had at least two semesters (with notices in hand) to do something about their grades. Y'all sound like y'all don't give a damn whether the students are responsiblly engaging in their academics or not. You just want them to "play in the band." To hear y'all tell it, just let a kid play just because he or she has an instrument and find a uniform that fits. Everything else be damn. If not then, when? If not there, where? I say on this action, the woman was correct. Many of you sound like you just enjoy black folk as performers and entertainers, not responsible students who came to college to get an education in the first place. Well, CVB gave them an in-your-face reality check. Good for her.
ReplyDeleteWho cares what damn newspaper cited the band for? Some of you mfs can be so damn shallow. If the mfs ain' doing their work, then they don't need to be in the damn band. Period. Get a mfing grip, and understand WTF the students are in college for. Jesus Christ!
ReplyDeleteThose students knew that they were not suppose to go to Detroit and participate in the band festivities. Being kids (who, obviously thought they "wouldn't get caught," they just showed up at the bus departure scene anyway. Ignoring authority is what kids do. But they were warned by letters almost six months ago about their grades. They simply chose to ignore the mandate. That's all. They just thought if they went ahead and got ready for the trip and showed up, that they were home free. Why are you folks making such a big deal about this? I've read very few bloggers who have actually supported the actions of the president. Mind you, the woman has engaged in some pretty serious actions since she's been there, but this one? Well, I agree with this one. Students just simply ignore papers and letters and information until those things hit them in the face. Bottom Line? They knew at least two semesters ago to shape up or ship out. Or, in this case, shape up or Don't Board.
ReplyDeleteWhy didn't CastHell pull the football players with GPA > 2.0?
ReplyDeleteI demand that the football players be pulled as well. Where is the Democrat when you need investigated reporting?
LOL! Some of you are hilarious!
ReplyDeleteLet's face it, I seriously doubt Castell physically went to the Band buses with a list and start yanking people off. I instead believe our illustrious band staff had that list; therefore, they knew of the 'students' who could not march. I am sure they picked that time to go through roll call. If your name was on the list, time to go.
As for the football players, they have NCAA rules to deal with. If they are in violation of that, TRUST, we will know about it (remember those 200 violations...).
Remember, FAMU is an academic school of learning...organizations are great there, but academics come first. It would have been hilarious if they were marching on the field for the Detroit Classic, and Castell made an announcement over the loudspeaker: "Will the following students please remove themselves from the field..." I mean, why pay for their hotel rooms if they can't march?!
Some of you are so far from the truth, and your hate for Castell is clearly showing.
ReplyDeleteI definitely don't fault her for saying that those students couldn't march. Castell didn't pull those students off the bus personally. She barely comes around the band as it is, now WHY would she show up PERSONALLY to do something like that? Does that make sense to you all?
She's got the rest of her cronies to do that.
There's nothing to see here. The band has academic standards in place that none of the non-greek organizations has, and I believe it's (partly) a deliberate attempt to keep the band's numbers down.
My how things have changed. I can remember during my time in the 100, many marched and were not even enrolled in school. To my ole school Rattlers do these names ring a bell:
ReplyDeleteTurk, T.C., Ozone, Kenny Hannah
Re:
ReplyDeleteCastell's timing may have sent a wake-up call to the rest of the students who think that college is simply an extended period of high school. I say, on this ONE thing, give the lady props. I ain' mad atta.
"CHECKMATE!"
Time for EVERYONE up there - student, employee, etc. - who thinks they are going to continue to get over on the School, and do thangs like it always has been done to "WTFU".
If she indeed have to resort to pulling 30 kids from the Band because they don't even have the minimum GPA to even be classified as a STUDENT, then maybe you should be asking the Band Director WHY were they even dressed and ready to go anywhere in the first place?
Are there NOT any Academic Advisor(s) for the Band?
As someone quoted above, there was a time when folks who weren't even registered for school would be marching in the Band - and it has always been rumored/alleged that some of them even got to march in Paris - so if TCW has to crack down like that, maybe you all better realize the woman don't give a s*** how abrasive her shtuff is coming off to ANY of you ... "If you have your game tight, apparently you have nuthin' to worry about from the woman!!"
And also "RN" ...
Handle your OWN blog postings from now on too ... And just leave any future cussin' amd shtuff like that to US!
If that's the best that your constituents can do for YOU in your absence, it may be best for you not to have anything posted until you return!
It is a fact that many returned to march in Paris. For that matter I was one. The 100 has always been, if you know the music and the dance routine you march. Be it in school or not.
ReplyDeletethe manner in how it was done left a lot to be desired.though at the end of the day, I think this is for the best. This will inspire all band students to tighten up their bootstraps and get on their grind focus on grades and academic excellence and graduate for a change.
ReplyDeleteThis has been known by the band staff since last year. Don't blame Castell for this shyt. Blame the students who are too dumb and lazy to maintain a 2.0 gpa.
ReplyDeleteI'm sick of folks not having any personal responsiblity. Maybe if we forced folks to have higher gpa's to participate in extracurricular activities, we would have higher than a 44% graduation rate. Have we forgotten what college is for? Give me a break!
I would be interested to know what that women's undergrad GPA was. I mean after all it took her ten mf years to graduate from college! How damn dumb can you be!
ReplyDeleteShe is dumb and shallow. Please just list to her speak. My Mother was in school with Cassie and she left a lot to be desired. She was far from being an academic scholar. She made it out six years after my Mother finished FAMU. I believe she was nearly 30 when she completed her degree, ten years later after entering FAMU around 18. She must have repeated several classes to get that far behind. She didn't make the grade. She had a 1.95 grade point average most of the time.
ReplyDeleteIs all this "airing" really necessary?
ReplyDeleteWhat does something that happened 30 years ago (old members and academic progress) have to do with what's going on TODAY????
IF it was accepted practice back then, then let's LEAVE IT BACK THEN.
You can't use the past to justify the present OR future.
Oh, and for the person who mentioned Paris, that was totally different than now. Wasn't that in the SUMMER of '89? SUMMER AND 17 years ago.
Ok, now, let us move forward, past this band talk. You know that Castell didn't personally go and pulled the students. Have you ever heard of the word "List"? That is what was in hand for that action to be committed. Castell is surrounded by people with PhDs. She has an EdD. degree. It is not a research degree. Apparently she did not have the smarts to get a research degree. Her insecurity makes her be a bully. Ten years to get a B.S. degree? Damn, girlF ain' too bright, is she? That's the mfing problem right there.
ReplyDeleteWhat amazes me is that we are lowering the bar for incoming freshmen, and then saying you must perform at a higher bar. If we are allowing these types of students as a majority, why are we surprised when they do not meet the academic standards or expectations of scholars.
ReplyDeleteIn order for FAMU to do better it must know better, and stop pretending that most of the students enrolled now, probably would have problems at a community college.
It's like saying okay, I know you are going to fail, but in the meantime you are not allowed to enjoy the college experience, because we just need your warm body to get that state cheese.
How ya'll know it took her 10 years to graduate? And what does it matter? She did! And so what she has an Ed. degree, she may not have wanted to get a research degree. That doesn't make her stupid. She shows us over and over again that she is far from stupid. Everytime ya'll think ya'll got something on her, she flips the script. Now who looks stupid? She still has a job, and ain't going nowhere anytime soon.
ReplyDeletePublic records. Even though transcripts are "suppose" to be private, hers isn't. At any rate, my aunt was a classmate of CVB, graduated with her from high school in Bartow, Florida. They both came to FAMU at the same time, same quarter. My aunt graduated in four years, went off to teach for a two or three years in Duval County, came back, took classes during the summers, and got her master's degree and Castell was still trying to get her BS degree. At the very least Castell was on The Hill for ten years. And then she was a P. E. major. Who the hell can't get a PE degree, way back then? It may be different now, but back when she was taking a decade to do what normally takes four/five years, it wasn't that difficult, because students were serious. Apparently no sot with CVB. So the EdD degree is par for the course. Folk who get those kinds of degrees can't hack the PhD. The EdD is easier, because it's not a research degree. Did Fred Humphries have an EdD degree? No, he did not; he had a PhD. Did Fred Gainous have a PhD? No, he, too, has the EdD. degree. All of the great presidents of Florida A&M University have been researchers: PhDs. She took the easy way out. She and Debra "Ed.D. degree" Austin. Go figure. By the way, I have a PhD. And having one of those as opposed to having an EdD degree makes a difference.
ReplyDeleteThe type of degrees really do make a difference. I, too, don't give a jack about what kind of paper the woman has, but perhaps if the lady didn't have all of this community college experience and that EdD degree and had, instead, a PhD degree and experience in running a four-year institution,then perhaps the school wouldn't be run in the manner in which it is being run. Look at Gainous. Look at his degrees. Look at his educational background: Community college experience. Look at the degrees of the presidents of other four-year institutions. All PhDs. No EdDs. Period.
ReplyDeleteThe BlackPoet is ignorant.
ReplyDeleteI've got a PhD also and to try and discredit someone who chose to get an EdD does nothing to your credibility. People make choices, Dr. Bryant chose to get an EdD. Yes, an EdD is easier. That still doesn't make CVB stupid. I would counter that a lot of our "counterparts" think we are stupid or can't cut it cause we work at an HBCU. Would you want somebody disparaging the work you have done because of the choices you have made?
ReplyDeleteLeave the high and mighty attitude where it belongs. It has no place here.
I am a close relative of one of the band members and I know for a fact that the kids knew more than a month ago that if their GPA's were not up to par that they would not be allowed to travel. Most of the kids thought that Castell would propably not go through with her threats, but she did. Also, for most of you who are former band members, there are still people in the band going on trips and participating in the band right there on campus, WHO ARE NOT IN SCHOOL. I know some of them personally. Dr. White is not as clean and he wants people to think, he is still a crook.
ReplyDeleteBottom line, those kids are here at FAMU to get an education and playing in the band should be secondary. Dr. White lets those kids go on those trips to make him look good and he needs to take steps to make sure that all of the kids playing in band have the proper GPA to participate and travel. He is the Director and that is part of his job. Castell needs to get on his AZZ!!!!
Everybody harking on degrees. Man please. Let's place the blame where it should rightfully be placed. Who hired Ganious in the first place? Our BOT. Don't fault because our board hired, they knew his eduational backgorund. The mees we are in for all practiacal purposes falls on our BOT.
ReplyDeleteTell me how can you pass over a candidate that serves on the board of major corporations, that is published in journals, and has a proven track record in recruiting and fund raising. Yes, I am speaking of Melvin Stith.
So lets place the blame where it belongs.
The BOT set us up with that last hire! Gainous over Stith and Nelms? Should we trust them to do it again? We need to be running off Castell and the BOT!!!!
ReplyDeleteIn the mean time CVB needs to leave the band alone! It is clear she has a hard on for Julian White, first she keeps him home from the Grammy's for no fukking reason and now this last minute meddling, what gives? Band Alumni need to raise up and slay the beast that is Castell !!!
ReplyDeleteI looked into Dr. Stith and we did let that good one get away. What a shame.
ReplyDeleteThe BOT made an idiotic decision to turn a cold shoulder to Melvin Stith. Members like James Corbin tried to push FAMU-FSU merger hysteria by claiming that Stith might try and do FAMU in if he was hired.
ReplyDeleteStith is an HBCU graduate (Norfolk State) who has had a very successful career. Working at FSU is not an act of disloyalty against black people. People like Corbin who believe that garbarge are race-baiting scoundrels.
Stith is bringing in big dollars to Syracuse. If we had Stith, our foundation would be growing instead of declining under Castell. Also, with Stith's charismatic personality and keen understanding of university-level administration, FAMU would be making strides in enrollment and research too.
Corbin, Castell, Bill Jennings, and the others who schemed to ruin our last presidential search are conniving, incompetent, opportunists.
Stith has contacts all over corporate America and is using them to benefit Syracuse, just as he did it at FAMU. Tell ne what contacts if any does Castell have?
ReplyDeleteBTW in her appointment of Debra Austin as porvost, she passed over a high ranking Dept. of Agriculture official that is a FAMU graduate and has personally allocated funds to the university in the form of grants. This same person's ties with Dr. Rivers that paved the way for FVSU to recieve the funds that they have recieved as well. Just goes to show us all that if we have small minded and petty people in charge we will never advance.
I think you meant FSU. But I get your drift.
ReplyDeleteTo Anon @ 9:03 9/6/06
ReplyDeleteIf you know of any such individuals, then turn them in...otherwise YOU are as much a crook as you claim Dr. White is (and i dare you to sign your name next time you wanna make an accusation like that!).
Further, those kids aren't out there spelling "WHITE" on the field....they spell "FAMU". After all Dr. White has done to promote FAMU and to personally give ALL of himself to help all of those who have come under him (me included), I suspect I'm not the only one who will defend him to the end.
Can you say the same about cassie?
Anonymous said.....He is the Director and that is part of his job. Castell needs to get on his AZZ!!!! 9/06/2006 9:03 AM
ReplyDeleteReally, and who should get on Castell's AZZ.
After reading the article below about the Angry Black Man's beloved band it becomes obvious that band needs a little Castell in their lives!
ReplyDeleteWhite has no control!
Band faces suspension for alleged hotel theft
Sakina Bowser
Posted: 9/8/06
The bad behavior of some members of Florida A&M University's renowned Marching 100 Sunday after the Detroit Classic may result in possible suspension of the entire band from "traveling from Nov. 18 (Florida Classic) through the end of the 2007 Spring Semester," Julian White, band director, stated in a memorandum distributed to band members and university officials.
The memo gave a deadline of noon yesterday for band members to come forward and admit their involvement.
After the Saturday night performance at the Detroit Classic, the band returned to the Marriott Hotel to rest before the long bus ride back to Tallahassee, band members said. Sunday morning as the band was departing, hotel officials stopped them, alleging items were missing from their hotel rooms, White said.
An anonymous source said the maids that were assigned to clean their rooms discovered the rooms had property missing.
Body towels, face towels, pillows, irons and comforters were among the items that were recovered, which delayed their return by three hours, white said.
White said the drum majors did a check along with the hotel staff, however the hotel staff was short.
The hotel called the police to monitor the situation as the items were returned from the busses, the anonymous source said.
"As of right now we are not pressing charges; furthermore, the school has been very cooperative in negotiations. We have not restricted the band from returning," said Raynard Lawler, the hotel's residential manager.
"Some of the property was recovered and immediately given back," White said.
"Then as the band started to leave I informed the hotel that they still had hotel property on the busses," White continued.
White said they currently have no knowledge of who was involved, but that an "intense investigation" will take place.
Interim President Castell Bryant did not discuss disciplinary action.
"I have left it up to band director Dr. Julian White, and Ralph Turner, Dean of Arts and Sciences," Bryant said.
White and Turner spent the majority of Tuesday and Wednesday coming up with consequences for all band members that were involved with the incident.
"Those who are involved will be suspended from the Miami game," White said.
"Once the investigation is complete the band will make further decisions and penalize those students, and there are plans in place to prevent this in the future."
The memo White gave to the band Wednesday evening stated that any band member who participated in the thefts or has personal knowledge of any thefts needs to contact FAMU Police Chief Calvin Ross.
White expects for all who participated or have knowledge of the situation to come forward in order to uphold the band's integrity.
The memo also said that if no one comes forward, the entire marching band will be banned from traveling to football games and competitions from Nov. 18, the date of the Florida Classic in Orlando,through the end of the spring semester 2007.
If any rules are broken again, those members will be dealt with accordingly.
No band member had stepped forward by The Famuan's production, Thursday evening.
While White could not give an estimate of how much was stolen, visual evidence can be seen on www.facebook.com.
ok who's got the facebook pass word and link so that we can see the goods?
ReplyDelete