• The FAMU pay crisis is beginning to pick up traction beyond the pages of this blog and the FAMUAN. Today, newspapers around the state are running an associated press article on the subject.
However, the funniest headline on the topic we've seen comes courtsey of the NY Times owned Lakeland Ledger, which wrote: "Interim President wants pay discrepancy resolved". Apparently, the headline writer didn't really have a clue.
Here's the article: Lakeland Ledger
FAMU spokeswoman LaNedra Carroll told the Associated Press, Thursdsay,"people have been working night and day to try to get the matter resolved."
• Meanwhile, Jesse Tyson, whose's initial flury of angry emails brought this issue to trustees attention earlier in the week when he was "demanding answers" and "immediate action" has now seemed to cool on the idea, suggesting to fellow trustees that an emergency meeting on the issue isn't warranted. Tyson now says, "the board is due to meet March 8, and that the situation is complex enough that it's not worth rushing into before then." Huh? Oh Really?
Tamika Johnson, a graduate student in Florida A&M University's School of Journalism & Graphic Communication, who has taught since the semester started Jan. 8, but as of Thursday she had not been paid strongly disagrees.
"It's just frustrating," said Johnson, who tries to send part of her pay home to Jacksonville to support her 2-year-old daughter. ''I maxed out my little $300 credit card. I needed groceries and to pay some bills.
"How difficult is it to pay your employees?" she asked
Don't worry Mr. Tyson, no one will ever mistake you for one of the sharpest knives in the drawer.
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
And even with all of the press, my check is still $700 short.
ReplyDeletebut did you get paid anything, yet?
ReplyDeleteIsn't Tyson a graduate of that sentinel of learning --- Lane College?
ReplyDeleteOne time for Rattlernation bringing attention to the interested and now the rest of the world. No one person is bigger than FAMU, and sometimes it takes a little public humiliation to get the process moving.
ReplyDeleteFAMU has had bad press intermittenly for over 100 years. And still attracted some of the best negro students and gained National attention for accolade after accolade. This bit of bad press won't hurt the school one bit, just the people running the school.
I got a check today for the last pay period but not for the previous pay periods
ReplyDeleteAnd I still don't have a conttract
ReplyDeleteLet's see . . .
ReplyDeleteJesse Tyson -- President & Sales Director of Exxon Mobil.
You -- A adjunct or whatever with no contract who continues to work without getting paid.
And who's the dumb one here?
No wonder our students are so ill prepared.
So cheating has now become the American Way.
ReplyDeleteTyson should be ashamed of himself, especially as a Black Male who should understand what it is like for Black men and women trying to provide for their families.
I was willing to give this brother a chance, but he can go straight to hades.
I thought slavery ended in the late 1800's.
ReplyDeleteWell it looks like it's alive and well.
anonymous 2:21 pm you are indeed an idiot! When I was at FAMU one of the most educated professor that was in the State University system worked for FAMU and I had the honor of being in his class. I know this because he showed me the letters from the states "flag ship" university offering him more money than FAMU was paying him twice and yet he stated that he was in debit to FAMU and the students who looked like him to stay and to this day I am a better person for that. Mr.Tyson and yes even you could be the president of Exxon Mobile simply by obtaining a taste for kissing donkey and eating ferterlizer. So these hard working people who worked for no pay were working so that we as a people could continue to grow stronger!
ReplyDeleteJesse Tyson's rise at Exxon on shows that ass kissing pays off! Same goes for Cast-hell !!!
ReplyDeletehAdjuncts continue to work at the university w/o benefit of pay because they are obligted to the students, not necessarily the university. The students have nothing to do with this debacle and to simply quit working or teaching the students says more about one's individual character than it does about how they tie money to service. I understand the dilemma, because I have been an adjunct before and I went went without pay quite a few times. I tell you there were many times that I wanted to quit, just walk away and say, F**K it, I ain' got to take this sh*t. But I stayed--as monetarily difficult as it was at time--because I've never been a quitter, I felt obligated to complete something I had started, I was trying to set an example that professional cannot always be tied to the dollar sign, and students depended on me to follow through with what I had initiated with them in the beginning of the term. While I became increasingly frustrated as the term wore on, I managed--barely scraping by, actually--but perserverance was my strong point and I'd hope that I took more away from the situation that I went in with. I know what it's like to be without the rent money, car note, $$ for the utility bill, phone bills and a host of incidentals. But had I walked away, I would have been as callous and cold-harded as the people who are indeed in charge of making sure that all employess are paid according to the services they satisfactorily perform, but are thmeselves without compassion for their fellow women and men.
ReplyDeleteHow can you, in good conscience, attempt to defend a university not paying its employees by talking about how great people are for working without pay? As noble as you portray these students and adjuncts for working without pay, many of them are doing it because they are fearful that they can't find a job elsewhere. And yes, it is rewarding to teach, but its very hard to teach when you haven't had a meal in days and your baby's crying because the lights are off.
ReplyDeleteThe same students that you refer to have not spoken out against the mistreatment of the adjuncts who teach them. So why should adjuncts place students' well-being over their own survival? Also, if not paying people is unacceptable in every other university on planet earth, why are we so accepting of it on FAMU campus?
Three reasons why no one should work for free:
ReplyDelete1. Slavery ended in 1865.
2. Federal law mandates that no
one working should go
without pay for over a month.
3. Working for free is unethical
when the university is
obligated to pay you.
4. If you work for free the only
example you are setting for
students is how to gracefully
accept your own oppression and
mistreatment.
5. Other universities pay people.
6. Students need examples of
black people who challenge
injustice, not tolerate
injustice.
7. The only way to make FAMU
better is to hold FAMU
accountable for how it treats
employees and students.
people who work for free = idiots that deserve to be treated like shit
ReplyDeleteThree reasons why no one should work for free:
ReplyDelete1. Slavery ended in 1865.
2. Federal law mandates that no
one working should go
without pay for over a month.
3. Working for free is unethical
when the university is
obligated to pay you.
4. If you work for free the only
example you are setting for
students is how to gracefully
accept your own oppression and
mistreatment.
5. Other universities pay people.
6. Students need examples of
black people who challenge
injustice, not tolerate
injustice.
7. The only way to make FAMU
better is to hold FAMU
accountable for how it treats
employees and students.
2/16/2007 8:59 PM
3 Reasons??? I guess they just kept on rollin' :)
No one was justifiying the University not paying these Hard working people and anyone with a little bit of common sense would see that no one posted a comment even near making that their point. However, these people talking about the law and slavery and etc. are not being fair because I work for a state organization where you only get paid once a month and the fact that you have to work the first month would mean that you would have to go a month without pay. But, my point on this subject is this the money is there and the fact that the Interim Leadership can not get the job done in order to pay these people has nothing to do with them as much as it does with the leadership of the university. This Board has done and is doing FAMU in!
ReplyDelete^^^^^
ReplyDeleteI just think it's stupid to romanticize the idea of working without pay, as if it's a sign of character instead of passiveness. I already stated above that it is state law that employees be paid at a minimum of once a month, so you're sharing nothing new on that point. But check your calendar. The semester began on the 8th and here we are on the 17th and some people still haven't been paid. And those who have been paid still received their checks over a month after their beginning date. This is illegal. But I think the most profound thing you said was that the money is there. FAMU has had the money the whole time. So my question is why did Castell & Co. hold peoples' money? Was it to gain interest on the money? Was it to show her disgust for the selection and endorsement of Ammons by the student and faculty body? Why did she hold the money?
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!
8:49--There's no "nobility" in my having worked without pay, and CERTAINLY, I'm not defending FAMU. Hardly. I'm just saying that I continued to work because the students had nothing, absolutely nothing to do with any of it, and, although the students understood my frustration, I didn't want to simply up and leave without a job in place. If you are unaware of how hard jobs are to find, perhaps you should quit yours--if you indeed have one--and see for yourself the difficulty one has in finding employment that pays anything. Defending FAMU. No, dear, I'm am not defending the university by a long shot.
ReplyDelete8:49--There's no "nobility" in my having worked without pay, and CERTAINLY, I'm not defending FAMU. Hardly. I'm just saying that I continued to work because the students had nothing, absolutely nothing to do with any of it, and, although the students understood my frustration, I didn't want to simply up and leave without a job in place. If you are unaware of how hard jobs are to find, perhaps you should quit yours--if you indeed have one--and see for yourself the difficulty one has in finding employment that pays anything. Defending FAMU. No, dear, I'm am not defending the university by a long shot.
ReplyDeletesome of you people can be so damn ignorant. ain' nobody trying to be noble or defend the school. and ain' nobody being oppressed and whatever. instead of just quitting, folks can always devise ways to do nothing, and i imagine that there are plenty folk who have devised ways of doing nothing until they get their money. very few people have the luxury of up and quitting a job without one waiting on them.
ReplyDeleteSome of you same people who are hollering about quitting a job wouldn't so do if you were in the same situation, because if you don't have one to go to, then you are in no better position than you were before you quit. And the state doesn't pay unemployment wages for people who quit a job--whether they have been paid or not, and whether they are mad about the situation or not. If they quit and look for another job, well, do you think a check is going to be waiting on them after two weeks? I don't think so. So while the situation is utterly deplorable in every sense of the word, I imagine that those persons who have remained at the university despite their situations have remained there because they are aware that eventually--however long "eventually--may take, the problem has attracted national news and hopefully there will be a quick resolution in this regard. How many of you people would up and quit with nothing to go to? Probably none of you. It's already hard out there, and to be without an inkling of any kind of job or prospects for one is rather undaunting.
ReplyDeleteWhy in the hell is this man still allowed to make discussion regarding FAMU. I thought he was removed by Gov. Crist?
ReplyDeletewhat man????
ReplyDeleteWho is this CNN news guy? He's cute!
ReplyDeleteMy wife teaches at FAMU. She was told she would be paid today (the infamous Friday, by which time he President said everyone would be paid). I just checked the account, still nothing there. I am tired of playing around with these idiots. We are starting to look for an attorney. There is more to not getting paid than just back pay. There is the issue of financial penalties from not being able to pay bills, lost opportunities because you were not paid on time.... All of that adds up. I think they owe employees more than just lost wages at this point!
ReplyDelete