Back in 1998, the Florida Board of Regents announced a Three
Tier Plan that called for FAMU to be a bottom tier “comprehensive” university
that would focus mainly on teaching undergraduate students. Then-FAMU President
Frederick S. Humphries led the fight to create a special
“Comprehensive/Doctoral” category that permitted the university to continue
pursuing its Ph.D. and research expansion ambitions.
Today, FAMU faces a different threat to its future as a
research institution. Humphries, like all university presidents who know how to run
a serious research university, understood that FAMU needed tenure in order to
compete for the best published professors and grant-writing scientists.
But in a few days, FAMU could have a new president who doesn’t
support tenure protection for faculty members. An investigating committee of the
American Association of University Professors accused Maupin of effectively
eliminating tenure at Meharry Medical College during his presidency at that
school. There were also allegations that he used intimidation tactics to
pressure faculty members into publicly supporting that overhaul. Maupin
currently leads the Morehouse School of Medicine, which does not offer tenure,
at all.
If Maupin comes to FAMU and uses his power to crush the tenure system, no one will have to officially push FAMU into a lower tier of the State University System of Florida (SUS). FAMU would voluntarily lump itself in the company of the tenure-less Florida Gulf Coast University and Florida Polytechnic. Those two schools sit on the sidelines concentrating on baccalaureate education as the state universities with tenure haul in most of the SUS’ state and federal research funding.
Back in 2011, Scott signed a bill that killed tenure in Florida’s
K-12 school system. He has now set his sights on tenure in higher education. Scott
continuously points to Florida Polytechnic, one of the proudest creations of
his governorship, as an example for others to follow.
University of Florida President Bernie Machen bravely went
toe-to-toe with Scott in 2011 when the governor began talking about the
possibility of overhauling tenure. He told the Alachua County legislative
delegation that UF “will quickly become a regional university at best” if it
loses the ability to offer tenure to its faculty.
“Every one of the top 100 universities in this country has
tenure,” Machen said. “If you want us to be a national university and compete
in that marketplace, don't tie my hands behind my back.”
If UF couldn’t compete beyond the Southeast without tenure,
it doesn’t take much to imagine what would happen to FAMU, which gets nothing
close to the type of generous legislative funding that UF receives each year.
While some may suggest that Maupin's anti-tenure efforts at Meharry are nothing to worry about and could never happen here, quite the contrary, just ask the Meharry faculty who had tenure and lost it under then President Maupin.
While some may suggest that Maupin's anti-tenure efforts at Meharry are nothing to worry about and could never happen here, quite the contrary, just ask the Meharry faculty who had tenure and lost it under then President Maupin.
It’s time for the Rattlers who don’t want FAMU to become a northern version of Florida
Polytechnic to fight for a president whose record shows that he or she understands
faculty tenure’s importance in the top-level academic marketplace. That means
saying “no” to Maupin’s presidential candidacy.