The Bryant Years: A Legacy of Shame!

Bryant led FAMU into the light
The Castell Bryant years began on a high note as the plain spoken, tough talking, Jasper, Fla. native told FAMU alumni that as interim president that she would be responsible for fixing all of the university's problems, no matter who created them or when they started. Little did we know, at the time, that she would create twice as many problems and fix very few.

• Six months after taking over, Mrs. Bryant was claiming victory. She said she'd erased a reported $52 million deficit and created an $8 million surplus. She did all this by taking away everyone's cell phones and firing 26 "slackers" at the Institute of Urban Policy and Commerce, one of whom publically refered to her as a "lame duck MF".

And to tout her successes, she published a glossy, error ridden, publication called 300 Days into the Light. The publication that had so many grammatical errors that it had to be pulled back and republished. The total printing bill -- $50,000!

Rattlers would later term the Bryant Presidency as 800 Days of Living Hell !

• Mrs. Bryant didn't just stop at the $50,000 "puff piece." She sought and received Board approval to spend another $200,000 of University money to revive "A&M Magazine," which she used as her personal instrument to tell us all just how well she was doing.

• Along the way, she established many important, lasting relationships for the university with companies such as the Hollins Group and KPMG.

• Two months into the Bryant Administration we learned that paying faculty and staff wasn't high on her priority list. In Feburary 2006, as many as, 15 adjunct professors complained of not being paid.

By Feburay 2007 the number of employees not being paid had mushroomed to over 600. The persistent pay problems threatened a total meltdown of the university as unpaid students and faculty across the campus went on strike. Castell's pay mess garnered the attention of the national media and Florida legislators.

• For the outstanding job she was doing the Board rewarded her with a $50,000 raise and $35,000 bounus.

• In April 2006, a festering fight between the professional staff in the College of Pharmacy and the novice college president had reached the boiling point. It seems that Mrs. Bryant thought she knew more about what the College of Pharmacy needed to maintain it accreditation than the staff of the college did.

By Feburary 2007, Mrs. Bryant's "my way or the highway" approach to dealing with real problems within one of the University's flagship programs had resulted in the College of Pharmacy being place on probation by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education.

• By July 2006, we'd begun to understand that Mrs. Bryant's reported $8 million surplus was actually a $10.4 million deficit.


• Through it all, FAMU managed to be named the best college for African-Americans by Black Enterprise Magazine in September 2006.

However, FAMU's enrollment continued to drop as one of the nation's most successful student recruitment programs had been dismantled.

Meanwhile, the SBI 8 achieved victory in their grievance against the university and were awarded a year's salary.

Later, the FAMU BOT decided to settle, out of court, with former FAMU football coach Billy Joe who was the target of Ms. Bryant's wrath. Joe also won a full years pay.

• By October 2006, Mrs. Bryant had picked a fight with the over 50 year-old FAMU Federal Credit Union over the use of the FAMU name. Ms. Bryant attempted to extort 3/4 of a million dollars from the credit union for the right to use the FAMU name.

• By January 2007, we'd learned that Mrs. Bryant and Debra Austin had probably been in on a controversial plan by the Florida Board of Governors that would strip FAMU and severval other universities of their graduate programs. The Pappas Report was crafted while Mrs. Austin served as SUS Chancellor and Bryant was a member of the Board.

• In March, with her days clearly numbered, Ms. Bryant stepped up her plans to destroy FAMU by plotting to give FSU full control of the FAMU/FSU College of Engineering and cancelling the Federal Direct Student Loan Program.

By now growing problems created by Ms. Bryant began to surface to the top prompting legislators to jump on the band wagon demaning that FAMU's problems must be fixed!. Meanwhile, so much for her January 2006 promise to be accountable for all problems, Ms. Bryant began to point fingers at past presidents. Heck, if George Gore were around she would have even blamed him too.

• By April 2007, with growing student unrest and the worst audit in FAMU history it became clear to all that FAMU's relationship with Ms. Bryant needed to be terminated and quick.

With all her friends falling by the way side --Jeb, Debra, Regina, Willie George, and Challis-- a defiant Mrs. Bryant also called it quits.

(FYI- The green highlighted words provide a hot link to previous stories.)