During a recent FAMU Board of Trustees meeting, board member R.B. Holmes, Jr. bashed the university administration for planning a new degree program at a time when numerous faculty and staff members face possible layoffs. He never mentioned the fact that he said nothing when his brother, former Developmental Research School Superintendent (DRS) Ronald Holmes, tried to lay off teachers late last year.Holmes cast the only “no” vote against FAMU’s proposed bachelor’s degree in information technology (IT). He opposed the idea of hiring three new employees (two professors and a secretary) to help launch the IT program when some 80 university positions are on stimulus dollars that run out at the end of 2010-2011.
“Nobody's received raises in the last three years … faculty or staff,” Holmes said in the Tallahassee Democrat. We've got to go back in the budget and take out 5 percent. I cannot give this program (support) knowing the variables.”
Provost Cynthia Hughes-Harris tried to explain to Holmes that the IT degree program will bring money into the university by increasing enrollment. There was a wait list of 60 to 80 students ready to declare the major.
Some of Florida’s public universities such as Florida State University have already laid off faculty members to deal with budget cuts. FAMU has avoided layoffs so far by boosting enrollment and increasing faculty workloads. Hughes-Harris said that FAMU has faculty members who are willing to take on extra work hours to get the IT program started.
FAMU underwent big budget cuts two years before the national economic crisis began in 2007. Back in 2005, R.B. and other trustees let then-Interim President Castell Bryant destroy the university’s recruitment program and send FAMU’s student numbers into a nosedive. FAMU went from 13,070 students in Fall 2004 to only 11,567 student in Fall 2007.
FAMU took a multi-million dollar hit in state enrollment funding because of its failure to meet its legally required student numbers. Holmes did not say anything about his role in creating the budget squeeze that may cost dozens of faculty members their jobs.
Holmes was also quiet while his brother, Ronald, was doing a poor job of recruiting students to DRS. DRS Enrollment only reached 544 in 2009-2010 after Ronald projected 600. The new DRS building is designed for 764 students.
Ronald announced plans to lay off nine DRS teachers in January 2010 to help close the budget hole. R.B. did not raise a public stink about his brother’s decision.
Hughes-Harris and President James H. Ammons stepped in to save the nine DRS faculty jobs by proposing a bailout for the school. On January 29, 2010, FAMU trustees accepted the university administration’s recommendation to use $425,802 from the FAMU DRS Trust Fund to cover projected deficits at DRS.
FAMU would have more dollars to spend on money-making programs such as the IT degree if it had not wasted money on Ronald’s salary. The IT program will cost about $300,000 over five years. The revenue it will create through enrollment and state funding increases will be much more than that price tag. FAMU has thrown away nearly $330,000 on Ronald’s three-year contract. Ronald took DRS from a “C’ grade on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test in 2008 to a “D” in 2009. Ronald is still on FAMU’s payroll as a “faculty/administrator” in the College of Education.
Rattlers near and far are shaking their heads at the inconsistency in R.B.’s criticism on layoffs. Some people on campus have expressed fear that R.B. is publicly bashing Ammons' handling of FAMU's budgetary cutbacks and trying to create negative headlines as a way of twisting the president's arm to eventually support him (R.B.) for another term on the Board of Trustees.
Holmes’ term ends on January 6, 2011 shortly after the new governor takes office. On that date he will be eligible for another appointment of up to six years.