Handing FAMU chairmanship to Rick Scott won’t help faculty

big rattler
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There is nothing wrong with FAMU Faculty Senate President Narayan Persaud wanting a change in the leadership of the FAMU Board of Trustees. That is his right as a board member. But he must not let himself be used to give Gov. Rick Scott control over the gavel.

Late last week, Persaud responded with anger after Chairman Chuck Badger suspended the search for a new FAMU president.

“I think Badger, by saying he is calling off the search, shows a lack of respect for the rest of the trustees,” Persaud told the Tallahassee Democrat. “Because of this lack of respect, I think (Badger) should resign as chair.”

Even though Rufus Montgomery gave lip service support to the suspension decision, moves are being made that could result in a coup to make him Badger’s replacement. Putting Rufus in charge would be the same as putting Scott in charge.

Persaud needs to remember that Scott is no friend of tenure for educators. He signed tenure-killing “merit pay” legislation for Florida’s K-12 schools back in March of 2011. The governor has said he is also very interested in the “Seven Breakthrough Solutions” education reforms promoted by the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think tank.

Faculty advocates such as Tom Auxter, a professor at the University of Florida and president of the statewide United Faculty of Florida, think that the Texas plan is an indirect attempt to end the public university tenure system altogether.

Rufus has never shown any backbone against Scott. There is very little chance that he would resist if the governor pushed him to try and end tenure at FAMU.

FAMU faculty members need to ask Persaud to be very straightforward with them about the names of the trustees who he would support as possible replacements for Badger. Just saying “I haven’t thought about that yet” isn’t an acceptable answer. Even if Persaud isn’t thinking about a specific name for a new chairman, he needs to know that other people are already making plans.

A group of anti-Badger trustees want Persaud’s vote as part of their pro-Rufus goal. Persaud shouldn’t let his outrage at Badger block his ability to see that a Rufus chairmanship would be bad for FAMU.

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