FAMU President James Ammons and his Florida State University counterpart, T.K. Wetherell, didn’t start off on the best of terms. Before Ammons even arrived for his first day as FAMU’s new chief executive, he and Wetherell engaged in a bitter struggle over the joint College of Engineering.
Last year, Wetherell successfully pressured former FAMU Interim President Castell Bryant to concede to his demand for full control over the engineering school. State Sens. Jim King and Evelyn Lynn joined him by supporting legislation that placed the E-College’s $10.4M budget in FSU’s legislative appropriation, rather than FAMU’s.
Ammons, then president-elect, rallied a vigorous opposition. Leading a bipartisan coalition – comprised of individuals such Sen. Al Lawson, Rep. Curtis Richardson, Florida House Policy & Budget Chair Ray Sansom, as well as numerous FAMU students, faculty, alumni, and trustees – the incoming president thwarted T.K.’s attempted coup.
Now, months after the dust from that conflict settled, Ammons has opened up candid talks with Wetherell on the state of the partnership. Members of the Florida Legislature and Board of Governors are aware of this and are watching closely in anticipation of the outcome.
Each time tensions flare up on the engineering school, many FSU supporters ask why FAMU opposes splitting it. Some actually claim that FAMU is “scared” to manage an engineering school on its own and prefers to “latch on” to FSU.
Those views are ignorant of history. FAMU received authorization to open an engineering school back in 1949, while the State of Florida was attempting to fight desegregation efforts at the University of Florida. However, the legislature failed to grant FAMU a sufficient level of funding for the program. This changed in early 1980s, when the State of Florida agreed to fully fund the engineering school as part of its desegregation consent decree with the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights.
FSU also wanted an engineering school at the time and successfully lobbied to be part of the one at FAMU. Since the E-College had a desegregation mission, FSU agreed to contribute to that goal. FSU argued that just as FAMU had the ability to attract blacks as an HBCU, it could bring in more women as a historically women’s school. Thus, a central part of E-College’s mission is to graduate more African Americans and women with engineering degrees.
Although the E-College’s mission and management have been sources of contention for years, tensions have risen even higher since FSU announced its intention of joining the American Association of Universities. The AAU rewards universities that excel at the “ranking game,” which emphasizes selectivity and high standardized test scores. Academic programs with minority access-based missions don’t help universities get into the AAU because they typically stay away from the rankings game.
FAMU supporters do not oppose FSU’s desire to seek AAU status. They oppose FSU pursuing this path in a way that would hurt FAMU.
“Splitting” the E-College would set FAMU back because the division process would turn into a free-for-all fight for the joint school’s advanced degrees programs, best lab facilities, and operating budget. In the end, FAMU would end up with fewer engineering Ph.D. programs and less operating dollars than it has under the current shared arrangement. That is unfair, especially considering that FAMU is the reason why the E-College even exists.
Another option is to simply create two new engineering schools. T.K. is offering to “help” FAMU lobby for an E-College of its own if it agrees to leave the one in Innovation Park.
The problem with that scenario is the issue of trust. T.K. endorsed the Pappas Plan, which stated that FAMU should become a baccalaureate-only institution. Also, as a state representative in 1983, he sponsored a bill that would have merged FAMU and the University of West Florida with FSU. It’s hard for FAMUans to believe that T.K. would ever carry the university’s best interests in the legislature – let alone lobby for FAMU to have a new engineering school with the same funding, facility space, or range of Ph.D. programs as the current one.
T.K.’s proposal is also suspect because if he truly believed that he could persuade the Florida Legislature to create new engineering school comparable to the jointly managed one, he probably would have taken that option long ago. FSU doesn’t need FAMU’s approval to ask legislators to build a brand new College of Engineering. However, the statewide budget squeeze and fact that FSU already has a full slate of engineering Ph.D.s in the current school makes that idea a tough sell at the state capitol.
If the current engineering school talks are to go anywhere, T.K. needs to drop any and all proposals that would - either directly or incidentally - scale back FAMU’s current access to engineering Ph.D.s.
Ammons, then president-elect, rallied a vigorous opposition. Leading a bipartisan coalition – comprised of individuals such Sen. Al Lawson, Rep. Curtis Richardson, Florida House Policy & Budget Chair Ray Sansom, as well as numerous FAMU students, faculty, alumni, and trustees – the incoming president thwarted T.K.’s attempted coup.
Now, months after the dust from that conflict settled, Ammons has opened up candid talks with Wetherell on the state of the partnership. Members of the Florida Legislature and Board of Governors are aware of this and are watching closely in anticipation of the outcome.
Each time tensions flare up on the engineering school, many FSU supporters ask why FAMU opposes splitting it. Some actually claim that FAMU is “scared” to manage an engineering school on its own and prefers to “latch on” to FSU.
Those views are ignorant of history. FAMU received authorization to open an engineering school back in 1949, while the State of Florida was attempting to fight desegregation efforts at the University of Florida. However, the legislature failed to grant FAMU a sufficient level of funding for the program. This changed in early 1980s, when the State of Florida agreed to fully fund the engineering school as part of its desegregation consent decree with the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights.
FSU also wanted an engineering school at the time and successfully lobbied to be part of the one at FAMU. Since the E-College had a desegregation mission, FSU agreed to contribute to that goal. FSU argued that just as FAMU had the ability to attract blacks as an HBCU, it could bring in more women as a historically women’s school. Thus, a central part of E-College’s mission is to graduate more African Americans and women with engineering degrees.
Although the E-College’s mission and management have been sources of contention for years, tensions have risen even higher since FSU announced its intention of joining the American Association of Universities. The AAU rewards universities that excel at the “ranking game,” which emphasizes selectivity and high standardized test scores. Academic programs with minority access-based missions don’t help universities get into the AAU because they typically stay away from the rankings game.
FAMU supporters do not oppose FSU’s desire to seek AAU status. They oppose FSU pursuing this path in a way that would hurt FAMU.
“Splitting” the E-College would set FAMU back because the division process would turn into a free-for-all fight for the joint school’s advanced degrees programs, best lab facilities, and operating budget. In the end, FAMU would end up with fewer engineering Ph.D. programs and less operating dollars than it has under the current shared arrangement. That is unfair, especially considering that FAMU is the reason why the E-College even exists.
Another option is to simply create two new engineering schools. T.K. is offering to “help” FAMU lobby for an E-College of its own if it agrees to leave the one in Innovation Park.
The problem with that scenario is the issue of trust. T.K. endorsed the Pappas Plan, which stated that FAMU should become a baccalaureate-only institution. Also, as a state representative in 1983, he sponsored a bill that would have merged FAMU and the University of West Florida with FSU. It’s hard for FAMUans to believe that T.K. would ever carry the university’s best interests in the legislature – let alone lobby for FAMU to have a new engineering school with the same funding, facility space, or range of Ph.D. programs as the current one.
T.K.’s proposal is also suspect because if he truly believed that he could persuade the Florida Legislature to create new engineering school comparable to the jointly managed one, he probably would have taken that option long ago. FSU doesn’t need FAMU’s approval to ask legislators to build a brand new College of Engineering. However, the statewide budget squeeze and fact that FSU already has a full slate of engineering Ph.D.s in the current school makes that idea a tough sell at the state capitol.
If the current engineering school talks are to go anywhere, T.K. needs to drop any and all proposals that would - either directly or incidentally - scale back FAMU’s current access to engineering Ph.D.s.
Gotta give credit when due ...
ReplyDelete"Great Article!"
I can't wait for the "naysayers" to start hooting and hollaring..
ReplyDeletegreat article
And, they will come.
ReplyDeleteThey will. I'm tired of the leeching we get when there is something that they want. All of this energy should be about the students.
ReplyDeleteExcellent write-up
ReplyDelete