Two-thirds of more than 400 Florida A&M University employees, waiting to be paid since the semester began Jan. 8, finally received paychecks on Friday.Tamika Johnson, a graduate student in FAMU's School of Journalism & Graphic Communication, was paid on Friday only $430 of the $1,130 she was owed.
"I really don't know," Castell Bryant said on Wednesday of what caused and would solve the mystery of FAMU's missing paychecks. "We're trying to find out what's going on."
Read more: Late pay disrupts FAMU
Pay makes news
Pay issue has Castell pointing fingers
Lack of pay may cause workers to quit
Check isn't in the mail
No pay for TAs and Adjuncts
Checks short/TAs go without
Some professors not being paid
As usual, Castell 'the buck stops over there' Bryant is trying hard to make this the fault of the victims. The University has been hiring adjuncts and graduate students for decades without these problems. Dr. Bryant issued millions of dollars in no-bid contracts to management consultants charged with fixing things (some of which weren't really broken.) She instituted mass firings, based on what she learned at the Dick Cheney School of Bird Hunting where the motto is "Fire, Ready, Aim."
ReplyDeleteAnd this is what it has come to.
The recent "Pappas Report" commissioned by the BOG lists the following:
Pappas Consulting Group Inc.
PCG/FLBOG/FBOG Report.doc/ATP.SP.4/CC.6/16January07 Page 52
BOARD OF TRUSTEES AND UNIVERSITY LEADERSHIP
Florida A&M University
Challis Lowe, Chair, Board of Trustees
Dr. Castell Vaughn Bryant, Interim President
Dr. Grace Ali, Chief Financial Officer and Vice President, Fiscal Affairs
Dr. Debra Austin, Provost and Vice President, Academic Affairs
Larry Henderson, Vice President, Enterprise Information Technology
Dr. Janie Greenleaf, Human Resources Director
Dr. Keith Jackson, Vice President, Sponsored Research
Col. Ronald Joe, Vice President, Development
Dr. Vincent June, Vice President, Student Affairs
Rufus Little, Vice President, Audit and Compliance
Elizabeth McBride, University Attorney
James McMillan, Special Assistant for Student Financial Services
Nelson Townsend, Athletics Director
Tony Stallworth, Associate Vice President, Construction and Facilities Management
Dr. Eva Wanton, Special Assistant to the President's Office
Which of these people were hired through a traditional and rigorous search process?
Which of them did Dr. Bryant NOT hire?
Which ones do NOT answer directly to her?
How anyone charged with oversight of this University, from the Governor to the trustees, can sit quietly and not step in and take action to immediately remove these people and re-establish professional management and shared academic governance to this great institution is incomprehensible! Dr. Bryant has governed in an autocratic and dictatorial manner and must not be allowed to push the blame off on those have been completely marginalized by her. She and her "management team" must accept full responsibility and be dealt with appropriately!
The Hounds are out and it won't be long now. They got Castelle running hard down in the swamp.
ReplyDeleteThey are going to either "tree her" or "run her to ground".
No, the university has NOT been hiring adjuncts and graduate students for DECADES without these problems. Theses problems have existed for years, although not to this degree. They existed greatly under the leadership of Humphries and on a smaller scale under the leadership of Gainous and during the interim presidency of Lewis. The issues simply did not make the big news. I know because I was an adjunct at different times under Humphries' presidency, and I know of others who were adjuncts and/or teaching assistants under the aforementioned presidents. The situation never expanded to include so many people, though. It was, for the most part, kept under wraps. But 400 people? This sort of thing could not be kept under cover, but it's existed forever, though not of the magnitude that it now has become.
ReplyDelete^^^^
ReplyDeleteWords this poster should never use again greatly and not to this degree. However many is great even if it's just one employee.
So much happened under Lewis and Gainous' tenure you'll never know the extent of the massive deterioration of FAMU. I am sorry Lewis doesn't get a pass on this, because he in part fukk the COP professors out of pay increases because of his selfish self-centered attitude.
They existed greatly under the leadership of Humphries and on a smaller scale under the leadership of Gainous and during the interim presidency of Lewis (all of six months and besides the freakin' contracts had been signed for the academic year. Sorry Lewis gets no credit here)
Humphries should come out and assume some responsibilty for this mess...check out this article
ReplyDeletehttp://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1056078/posts
anonymous said ...
ReplyDeleteNo, the university has NOT been hiring adjuncts and graduate students for DECADES without these problems. Theses problems have existed for years, although not to this degree. ... I know because I was an adjunct at different times under Humphries' presidency, ...
I've been full-time faculty since the late 80s, and it has never been anywhere near this bad. Gainous and his VPs got their pay held because they were late with some reports. Gainous explained that things were a mess and he wanted the numbers right before he signed off on them. It got him ridiculed and fired. Castell tells fairy tales and it gets her a gigantic raise and a bonus.
How bad does it have to be before the BOG, the legistature, and the governor see the obvious and get outraged? It looks to me like this University has been ransacked and plundered ... taken out by the Bushes and mugged!
Of course, Lewis or Gainous don't get a "pass" on this. That certainly wasn't my point. My point, in case it was not gotten, is that the debacle surrounding adjuncts' pay (and others, also) had, for the most part, been kept out of the national news. And the magnitude of the circumstances surrounding this current situation doesn't lessen the severity of the situation when Gainous, Humphries, Lewis, et al, when folks did not get their money. No administrator is excused from this horrendous act. Never in my memory, however, have so many people been so horribly affected as what we are now seeing. No one is to be excused from this, because everyone has financial responsibilities--and even if they don't and wish to just toss their hard-earned $$ out a window--they at least need to be shown the respect that they, as professionals, have exhibited by engaging in the services for which they were hired. So, no, no one's excused--past, present and/or future presidents, administrators and/or whomever.
ReplyDeleteThe real issue is that Humphries, Lewis, and Gainous can't change what's happening now, so flogging them is senseless. Whether or not they share in the responsibility, the fact remains that Dr. Bryant was supposed to straighten things out. Instead she has made everything worse, firing people willy-nilly -- ruining careers and making lives unbearable, turning away deserving and qualified students by shutting down financial aid comittments to applicants, and operating completely outside accepted standards of academia in hiring unqualified people who proceeded to completely bungle the most ordinary aspects of operating a university. If this doesn't deserve a major investigation by the State, I don't know what does!
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...Humphries should come out and assume some responsibilty for this mess...check out this article http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1056078/posts
ReplyDelete2/17/2007 8:42 PM
Come this is 2004. When did Humphries leave, 2001? Three years later and now six and people are still grasping for anything. Check the auditor generals site. The audits tell the real story.
RN, can you verify if the rumor that's circulating about people being asked if they can wait until the new fiscal year to receive their full pay is true?
ReplyDeleteI personally don't see how FAMU can get away with making this kind of request.
Thank you RN for keeping us informed.
Once again the word "glitch" is being used to describe mismanagement and incompetence at FAMU and we accept that as an explanation for everything. Saying "I don't know" is not a response. If you don't believe me try giving it as a response to the IRS or to the next police officer at a traffic stop.
ReplyDeleteAlthough the article does say "glitch", it also states that this problem is apparently not the fault of some computer glitch!
ReplyDeleteSo once again ... We have yet another in a stack of cases of where "Some of The Problems Up There NOT Always Being With PeopleSoft ... But Simply With The PEOPLE!"
Why has the discussion turned to the issue of past presidents and their tenure? You people epitomize what the problem is with blacks today...you can never focus in on the current issue and fix that, without veering off topic!
ReplyDeleteWho cares what the university has done in the past, I don't know about you people, but I personally do not live in the past. People have to eat today and I am almost certain that the people who have not been given their paychecks are not sitting around reflecting back on past occurrences of the university not paying people their paychecks! They are thinking about today, tomorrow, and the future!
As a student in the mid 80's through the early 90's this problem existed. As graduate students, those who were on private dollars received their moeny in a timely fashion and those that received government forms of support almost always received their dollars late.
ReplyDeleteI do not know for sure, but maybe the university has problems with its funding streams and is waiting for an influx of dollars from some place. Unfortunately, we may not have the reserves or the ability to moves dollars around like we did in the past. Monies have restrictions and just because we may have dollars in the construction pot, does not mean they can be moved for the salary pot.
I think the university really needs an influx of dollars, more students moving to the upper levels so we can get more money per student. More unrestricted dollars given to the university so money can be moved around.
I am sure the president does know what the problem is but is choosing not to tell. Be careful what you ask for...
anonymous 10:38 yes this article was written in 2004, but the facts given go back into humphries tenure. read the article and quit dismissing it with some non relevant detail. mismanagement is mismanagement regardless!
ReplyDelete^^^^
ReplyDeleteLet me insert myself comments here:
I don't think the poster is dismissing anything during Humphries tenure. For example, under his administration the following happened -- "An FBI investigation of the FAMU financial aid office led to criminal convictions. The school at times failed to pay teachers or graduate assistants. There were late reports, poor accounting and problems with the spending of federal grant money."
Through all of Castell's ghost employee payroll audits, financial shenanighans, I've yet to see one person prosecuted or charge with a crime. Late reports are still an issue, poor accounting is still an issue, problems with federal funding is still an issue on top of declining enrollment, a reduction in state funding and the internal deterioration of FAMU.
She told the BOT she had cleaned up ALL of these problems and they rewarded her with a $85,000 raise/bonus.
Point the finger to one employee that has arrested or charged under Castell. At least under Humphries people are paying/paid for their wrong-doings by doing federal and state prison time.
Can you say the same about Castell?
Heck naw!
Does it matter when the problem started?
ReplyDeleteDoes it matter when the problem started?
ReplyDeleteYes. Timelines are important to identified not only "when", but HOW the "problem" started, and to implement policies, procedures, checks and balances to keep it from happening again. Ignoring or trying to forget the past does nothing for building a future. It only feeds into failure, which is an option that we don't have today.
You must know what goes into your foundation before you build your building. You only get better buy identifying/owning your past mistakes.
As one of the adjuncts directly influenced by this situation, the last thing on my mind is when the problem started. I'm only concerned with relief and retribution. You can afford to sit back and play an arm chair philosopher, asking yourself these pointless rhetorical questions about when the problem started. But my life is affected and I personally don't give a damn when it started.
ReplyDeleteDr. Greenleaf and her partner in crime, Dr. Vincent June started this mess. Dr. Greenleaf fired and laid people off in pay roll. What sense did that make? I think Dr. Greenleaf was being hateful and spiteful to some of the workers in payroll and let them go. This is your problem Dr. Bryant; check with your colleague, she's the mosquito....
ReplyDeleteWhat did Vincent June have to do with the payroll office firings. I don't like the two-faced, lying weasel -- but how was he involved?
ReplyDelete