FAMU President James Ammons’ administration has been wounded by two big problems that also hurt his predecessor, Fred Gainous. Those problems are: bad trustees and Rattlers who seem determined to help those bad trustees shift all blame to Lee Hall.Back in 2004, thousands of FAMU supporters signed a petition calling for Gainous’ removal. The first two charges against the president read:
“1. Allowed others to make a decision about FAMU football that bought dishonor and ridicule to one the nation’s greatest athletic traditions as a result of a decision to move to Division 1-A without a due diligence report on the merits of such a move.”
“2. Abandoned his responsibilities on behalf of the athletic program that allowed a $2.8 million surplus to be squandered, leaving the athletic budget with a deficit of more than $700,000 to begin the 2004-2005 academic year.”
FAMUans knew who was behind the athletic department mess: Board of Trustees Chairman James Corbin. Corbin admitted to the Tallahassee Democrat that he “suggested” that Gainous hire his friend J.R.E. Lee, III as interim athletic director. The chairman also pulled the strings which led to the 1-A fiasco.
However, after Gainous was fired, most of the individuals who signed the petition did not join the public fight for Corbin’s removal. They simply sat back passively and let Corbin continue to do as he pleased on the BOT.
Corbin and his buddies Bill Jennings and R.B. Holmes, Jr. collaborated to bring Castell Bryant in as the interim president. Everyone knows what happened next…
The public lobbying campaign for Corbin’s removal (which succeeded in 2005) never attracted the same level of support in Rattler Country as the petition for Gainous’ firing.
There are many FAMUans who simply have no interest in holding the BOT accountable. Any time there is a problem on campus, they will blame the president and no one else. It doesn’t matter how many signs of trustee micromanagement are in plain sight. These individuals will still say it is all the president’s fault and ignore the bad trustees.
Holmes and Jennings are taking advantage of the “blame the president only” tendency in Rattler Country, today. When confronted with questions about whether a trustee had micromanaged the hiring process for FAMU DRS’ superintendent, they denied all knowledge and pointed their fingers at Ammons.
Rattlers must ask themselves: “If FAMU trustees know that most of us will just blame the president for any and all administrative problems (even those which seem to be associated with trustee micromanagement), can we really be surprised when we continue to see hiring decisions that benefit trustees’ friends and family members?”
People tend to be very bold about doing the wrong thing when they know they can get away with it.
Does anyone know what the topic for discussion is for the BOT conference call today? Are they talking about the schedule for layoffs or the furloughing (salary cuts by another name) process?
ReplyDeleteRN,
ReplyDeleteWhile I understand your frustration with the BOT and agree with you that ours has been quite disfunctional over the years, issues concerning personnel and the day-to-day operations of the university always start and end with the president (the CEO) of any college/university. The BOTs exist to make sure a college / university is operating to fulfill its missions and to hold the president accountable for the fiscal and academic direction of the institution. They are not there to run the institution. If any thing, the FAMU BOT should be asking Ammons what he plans to do to correct DRS's and any other situation at the university. I support Ammons, but if you really want to see changes at DRS, we, you included RN, should start putting more pressure on Ammons and his executive administration to ask hard questions of DRS administration.
Again, if a president is unprepared, unwilling, or afraid to ask tough questions of a superintendent under his watch and the dean of COE, then he or she shouldn't be president of that university. Such a president becomes a puppet for others to pull his/her strings.
I sincerely hope Ammons is not that type of president and will begin to ask those tough questions of those who serve under him.
Bull crap... Ammons is responsible because he has not demonstrated that he is his own man. When he starts saying "No, no more hook-ups for my friends and their friends" then he will be off the hook.
ReplyDeleteWait and see. There will be another bad hook-up when it comes to the athletic director. We had two good candidates and no offers have been extended. Word on the street is that another hook-up will unfold.
We are made that JRE Lee took us from a surplus to a $700,000 deficit. Yes JRE Lee had a vision to move FAMU up to Division I. Look at all the lesser schools in Florida who have not played a hundred years of football who are now Division I. He tried to get us a radio/TV deal that went sour. Good idea, wrong black people to work with.
Who took us from a $700,000 deficit to a $5M+ deficit? You cannot blame all of this on Castell Bryant. How much can we blame on our great athletic director, Bill Hayes, BTW: an Ammons appointee.
Well done 9:41 AM, You have done your homework. Now, if everyboody thought with common sense.The university can move forward in a positivie direction.Let's face it Ammons is just a soft leader with no direction.
ReplyDelete3pm BOT meeting
ReplyDelete866 356 6464
ID # 67373381
History really repeats itself. Looks like most folks want to let R.B. Holmes off the hook just like the petitioners let Jim Corbin off the hook.
ReplyDeleteHolmes should have been gone a long time ago. Long time ago. The biggest issue at DRS is who's children are enrolled. It's all about the buy-in. The families of Tallahassee have not been courted and convinced. The scores only reflect the fact that the traditional FAMUDRS student is a rare breed indeed. Oh my people there is a lot to talk about here. Don't get caught up in the blame game.
ReplyDelete10:58 AM and others,
ReplyDeleteAgain, I agree with you. We haven't always had the most effective and sincere BOT members; however, the issues we are debating on this blog fall in the lap of the president, who is responsible for personnel issues (i.e., hiring and firing) across campus.
12:18 PM,
You make a good observation. Many families who sent their kids to DRS in the past are now sending them elsewhere. However, one can arge that effective leadership at DRS and academic vision will re-attract those families (or at least those kind of families) to return.
respectfully,
9:39 AM
As long as we let trustees like R.B. Holmes stay on the BOT, we're going to have problems like the current one at DRS.
ReplyDeleteBut hey, let's all just blame the president and give R.B. a free pass. That will fix the problem.
The day-to-day operations of a university are the responsibility of the president. The Board sets policies and vision. One person on a board should only be one vote. If the rest of the Board members let that one person dominate shame on them. The president has the responsiblity to lobby board members and get them in line with the needs of the university. I say nepotism and friends running FAMU are the problem. Point the finger it can go around to many people.
ReplyDeleteThe FAMU Administration is very inefficient and dysfunctional. They are always demanding more of the faculty and providing ever-decreasing resources, while demanding nothing of themselves, except the challenge of how to spend their bonuses and pay raises.
ReplyDeleteRN any ideas on what happened at todays BOT meeting?
ReplyDeleteDr. Ammons is not completely to blame. Again, when you have a micromanaging BOT like ours with their own special interests, then many times your hands are tied. We need not get distracted from the issues at hand, nor should we allow the BOT to get away with their ridiculous antics and costly decision-making any longer. Time for FAMUans and the FAMU community to take a stand and make some noise. Some of them--like many employee and the FAMU buddy system--are just dinosaurs that need a dose of "reality check". Let's get real.
ReplyDeleteLot of finger pointing going on here. What is the answer?
ReplyDeleteLet the money go towards the money that Dr. Holmes needs for FAMU DRS.
ReplyDeletefamu has a problem that goes deeper than what people see, $90,000 hip hop salaries,$ 90,000 personal secretary salaries, a vice president that runs the atheletic department and refuse a 5 million dollar contract and still refuses to talk with qualified poeople that can bring famu into the finantual plus column, because what does she know about atheletics? hayes had no qualifying credentials to sit in the AD's seat when alvin hollins was running the department with no budget and under fire to produce everything with nothing, football coach and basetball coach with no recruiting budgets, as ammons' appointees and friends recieved living wages as alvin hollins after 30 years of service is fired and never paid for the remainder of his contract, where was or is the outrage? famu has had poor leadership in the presidents office and in the athletic administrative offices for over 13 years and people who knew it did nothing. buddy deals, firing profesors from the business college, terminating coach novela franklin and not compensating her but because the firing was unjust the university had to hire her back and still have not restored her as the coach of the bowling team. famu is internallly rotten a
ReplyDeleteI am trying to decipher the last post. Is all of this or that documented?
ReplyDeleteConcerning the FAMU BOT and their competence and performance, ask yourself the question: who appointed them? Did the Republican governor and the Florida BOG have FAMU's best interest at heart? I sincerely doubt it. No, they appointed a collection of ineffective self-serving cyphers. What are they on the BOT for if not to appoint their relatives and friends to FAMU positions and to somehow channel off some of FAMU money into their own pockets?
ReplyDeleteDr. Ammons has let us down and when we look at the payroll over in Lee Hall and then walk around the campus with broken down buses, broken down faculty, and broken promises. It is sad. Let us make this clear, Ammons is NO DR.Humpries! He isnt even the Ammons that he said he was going to be! In addition, we believe he either reads RN personally or has one of his lackeys read it and give him an update, so please give him this update.
ReplyDeleteDr. Ammons we believed that you, from Polk County Florida, would bring some small town country values back to the Hill, the Hill that you speak of with so much passion. Dr. Ammons as a young student many of us personally chose FAMU, in part, because of your story. Single mother, not a whole lot of money, but a drive and a dream. What happend? How did you go from upstanding to not even standing up? Where did the change take place? We want to know so that we never go down that road. It is truly unbelievable that Dr. Humpries could be your mentor, because we are supose to strive to be half the person that our mentors are. If you strived to be half the president that history has written that Dr. Humpries was then this post would not have been written.
This is not the FAMU of old that created and supported leaders, this is a new FAMU of Blacks who want to be White and Blacks who feel nothing of stealing from each other in order to enrich themselves. No longer is it the FAMU that created the Black middle class, but it is the FAMU that is killing itself from within. Its not the white man that is killing FAMU its sick Black folk who are killing FAMU! And it is ashame!
ReplyDeleteHolmes is a prime example he was and has been a fraud since before he was on the Board, but he is a "preacher", so in the sad Black community he is a "leader"? I mean get real!
12:46 & 12:48 P.M. - All I can say is AMEN. FAMU reeks of unqualified personnel in key positions. while I don't profess to be an expert at all things I know a fraud and an unprofessional person when I see one.
ReplyDeleteThere are some true STARS on your campus and you won't even acknowledge nor reward them. They will leave and go help to make other schools thrive.
Keep this up and you'll keep asking why won't alumni give back, trust me - this type of behavior has a lot to do with how FAMU is currently led. Keep recycling old thiefs and friends and that's who you can look to for your fundraising dollars.