As promised, here's a copy of the 31 page operational audit of FAMU. State Auditors just released gave the University a copy of this audit on Wednesday. The University is still providing auditors information they requested to complete this long overdue audit. The University has 30 days to respond to the auditor's finds.
Here's the complete audit for you to download and read: Prelimenary FAMU Operational Audit
Just reading the first 4 pages makes me want to take some folks out back, line them up against the wall, and pull the trigger.
ReplyDeleteCastell has gone on the attack against the alumni effort to remove the 6 trustees who voted for Thelma Thompson. She's also publicly attacking James Ammons as well.
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Crony culture imperils FAMU
By BILL MAXWELL
Published March 18, 2007
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Castell Vaughn Bryant should be paid combat and hazardous duty pay.
When she became the interim president of historically black Florida A&M University in Tallahassee more than two years ago, she knowingly walked into a war zone. She inherited an institution mired in financial chaos and management dysfunction.
I have no doubt that the mess Bryant is trying to fix was left by former FAMU president Frederick Humphries' 16-year imperial reign, from 1985 to 2001, and the anemic four-year tenure of Fred Gainous, who followed Humphries in 2001.
Some of the tangible problems Bryant inherited include: theft in the financial aid office; adjunct professors not getting paid; state audits showing the university spent millions of dollars more than it had budgeted; and indecipherable bookkeeping.
After Bryant, the first woman to lead the school, took over in 2005, other problems with roots in the distant and recent past continued: An endowed chair at the law school was handed to a major donor; a staff member in the financial office was indicted for fraud; the National Science Foundation was ready to stop federal grants until the school agreed to return the funds in question; a criminal investigation showed gross irregularities at the Institute for Urban Policy and Commerce.
To her lasting credit, Bryant implemented a tough, no-nonsense approach to fix the problems, which drew calls for her ouster. Among her efforts, she closed the Institute for Urban Policy and Commerce and fired all 23 of its employees. She called for a spending freeze, hired outside professionals to examine the books, eliminated wasteful programs and fired "deadwood."
Today, because many old-timers are resisting change, major problems remain, most notably the 700 or so late paychecks to adjunct professors and other employees.
I listed some of the tangible problems at FAMU. The nitty-gritty, however, is that the tangible problems are the direct result of at least two major intangible subcultures: blind glorification of the institution and debilitating cronyism.
For generations, FAMU's presidents and senior administrators rewarded their friends and the friends of friends with plum positions of power. Anyone, even a lawmaker, criticizing Humphries was demonized. If you were white, you were accused of being a racist. If you were black, you were accused of being a sellout or an Uncle Tom.
As a result, the incestuous rot spread, creating the crises FAMU faces today.
The blind glorification and the cronyism surfaced in the antics surrounding the recent hiring of a permanent president, James H. Ammons, who will replace Bryant this summer. After Ammons was hired, Alvin Bryant, president of the FAMU National Alumni Association, e-mailed on March 1 an "action alert" addressed to "Dear FAMU Friends & Family."
Alvin Bryant (no relation to Castell Bryant) wrote: "We need your help! We need all Rattlers to spring into action and help us clean up our Board of Trustees. With the start of the 2007 Legislative session set to convene on Tuesday, March 6, we have a rare opportunity to voice our concerns to members of the Florida Senate and ask them not to approve the pending appointments of several current trustees who do not have the university's best interest at heart."
Alvin Bryant asked all FAMU alumni and supporters to telephone or write or e-mail specific elected officials, including Gov. Charlie Crist, asking them to reject the pending reappointments of Challis Lowe and Jesse Tyson and to ask for the resignations of Regina Benjamin, Laura Branker, W. George Allen and Leerie Jenkins.
Alvin Bryant wants these six trustees gone because they did not vote to hire Ammons. They believed that the other finalist, Thelma Thompson, was a better choice.
During a telephone interview, Castell Bryant told me that Alvin Bryant's e-mail manifests the culture of cronyism responsible for the university's dire straits.
"The seven who voted for Dr. Ammons believe that he will represent traditional FAMU points of view and culture, having served at the university as provost," Castell Bryant said. "By contrast, his opponent was viewed as an outsider. The campaign to oust the dissenting board members is calling for a rubber stamp board of trustees. ... Independent thinking and differing points of view greatly increase the likelihood of developing innovative plans for strengthening the university.
"We have entered a period in the United States when rubber stamp boards and friendly appointments are increasingly frowned on in both the business and nonprofit worlds. It is hard to believe, but some involved in this ... campaign contend that all board members should be from the Tallahassee area because they are closer to the university and know it best. The days when a university, such as Florida A&M, can expect to achieve its goals by simply whispering in someone's ear are long gone."
Castell Bryant has identified the major source of FAMU's serious problems.
"My view is that the greatest threat to FAMU's future would be its failure to change," she said. "There is a great heritage and enormous devotion to the school from thousands of people. But my more than two years as interim president convince me that the changes we have started are only a beginning. The board members who are under attack agree."
I guess that the state AG got it wrong, huh? Oh, pul-leaze. Tell ya what- Go tell him to his face that he's a bold faced lie. Yeah, right. That won't happen because you all (C. Bryant and cronies) know the above article is a feeble attempt to spin the obvious.
ReplyDelete"My view is that the greatest threat to FAMU's future would be its failure to change," she (Castell) said.
Oh, we're changing. We're changing your butt (and the rest of the BOT6) up out of here. Getting rid of the disease and allowing the healing to began.
Who is this idiot name Bill Maxwell? He is the most mis-informed individual on Planet Earth?
ReplyDeleteI just had my first opportunity to read the "Opinion colunm" written in the St Pete Times by Bill Maxwell. His article is one that supports CVB and her ignorance. He attacked Dr. Humphries and we all know that CVB and Corbin have been forever jealous over the many achievements of the Humphries' administration. He even stated that he spoke with Castell and we know the lies began to roll from that point forward. Bill Maxwell in his "opinion" mis-stated the real facts. All I request is for him to show-up at "High Noon" tommorrow at the Capitol in Room 309 for the real truth, and nothing but the truth. The Auditor General's Staff will be presenting the 7/1/2005 - 6/30/2006 audit report which shows all of CVB incompetence.
ReplyDelete3/18/2007 7:19 PM,
ReplyDeleteIs tomorrow's meeting one that is specifically abut FAMU? Or is it about the entire SUS?
It is a report on FAMU only!
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ReplyDeleteBy the auditor general to the Joint Legislative Audit Committee because they can't get a straight answer from Castell (JAMES CORBIN) or Challis Lowe or W. George Allen.
Guest we may as well cancel FAMU Day at the Capitol and just name the whole damn session FAMU Session the way these muggs keep calling us down there.
Thanks 3/18/2007 7:30 PM.
ReplyDeleteWe cannot afford another day with Castell as interim president. FAMU supporters should show up to that meeting with picket signs calling for the removal of the six pro-Thelma Thompson trustees. They tried to hire a candidate who lied to the entire BOT about UMES's audit. It seems like those trustees like going up to capital hill everyday to explain why the university's financial health is getting worse, not better.
Bill Maxwell feels sorry for this administration (CVB)because she supposedly inherited these problems from Pres. Hump. Yeah, right!
ReplyDeleteWell she has had two and a half years to fix the "inheritance". Under her COMPLETE control the inheritance has gotten worse (from 26 findings to 35 findings in the audit report). Now that's some kind of a leader. Good Bye Ms. Bryant and go ridance.
If you hadn't been so mean and nasty to people, floks would have helped you. But when you know every thing about every thing, people will let you make an A out of yourself. I hope you have learned some thing. I doubt it. Sweetness attract people more so than harshness. Again, GOOD BYE!
Here is all you need to know on Bill Maxwell...Another slanted writer from the St. Petersburg Times..
ReplyDeletehttp://rolemodels.jou.ufl.edu/rolemodels/publisher/index.shtm
Bill, tell me if you are so enlightened and your perspective is so keen, where are you now?
ReplyDeleteWhat are your credentials? Do you really believe that Fred Humphries had the power to intimidate the entire Florida Legislature, Auditors, SACS and the best students in the country for 17 years. Please tell me again how Humphries was able to amass so much power in the State of Florida, that every accountability mechanism was afraid to take him on....That assertion is completely absurd. The fact is that FAMU rose from the ashes under his watch and now we are subjected to a bunch of Community College admistrators playing out of their weight class...It's that simple.
Bill Maxwell, Editorial Writer and Columnist
ReplyDeleteBill Maxwell, 60, was born in Fort Lauderdale, was reared as a migrant farm worker and grew up in several cities on the U.S. East Coast. He graduated from Bethune-Cookman College with a double major in English and history. He then earned a master's degree in English Language and Literature from the University of Chicago and studied journalism at the University of Florida. He first joined the Times editorial board in 1994, left in 2004 to teach at Stillman College in Tuscaloosa, Ala., and returned to the Times in 2006. He lives in St. Petersburg and has two adult children.
bmaxwell@sptimes.com
He needs to feel the sting from some venomous Rattlers.
yall know Ruful Little, I mean Chicken little has no compliance skills and is another reason why FAMU got hit real hard. Dr. Ammons Chicken little gots to go - can't never get a hold of him
ReplyDeleteCastell said nothing in her interview with Maxwell regarding her return to the university. If she was not of the "old school" she would not have accepted the interim presidency of the university. But she accepted and she came. Then, what she did when she came to the university was hire a bunch of her friends. So what is she (and Maxwell) talking about when they each mention cronyism. She is guilty as well. No one is afraid of change. Why would we want to hire someone who will not examine the issues presented before them and decide, instead, to rubber-stamp any initiative or suggestion that comes to the table. The very things that Castell Bryant complains about and criticizes, she, too, is guilty of. While most presidents at most universities should be "paid combat...pay," Castell willingly walked into the zone and has contributed as much chaos as she claims was there upon her arrival. While certainly she has had the audacity to clean up quite a bit of the madness, she is quite responsible for creating it as well. Let us not be afraid to call a spade a spade. If she is taking a beating from the legislators regarding the financial mismanagement of her administrative team, she should. And while she's doing so, she should also curl her index finger(?)inward and let the pointing and blame be directed at the person sitting in the seat: Castell Vaughn Bryant. Case Closed.
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