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| Frederick S. Humphries with National Achievement Scholars in 1989 |
It states that the option of dividing the college into two
separate schools with “differentiated programs” would likely be challenged by
the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights and in the federal
court system. The report also concludes that it would cost $1 billion in
startup costs to establish two separate research-oriented colleges of
engineering at FAMU and FSU in a way that complies with federal case law. Federal
case law would also prohibit both separate colleges from being located in Tallahassee.
But the preliminary report also states that FAMU has work to
do in order to reverse the decline in the number of students it has enrolled in
the joint college.
FAMU’s undergraduate engineering student enrollment fell from 582 in 2004-2005 to 321 in 2013-2014. It graduate student enrollment dropped from 56 in 2004-2005 to 24 in 2013-2014.
FSU’s student number went up during the same period.
The consultants pointed to former FAMU President Frederick
S. Humphries’ success in recruiting highly qualified African American engineering
students as a model that should be studied by the current leaders of FAMU and
Florida State University.
“The decline in the enrollment of FAMU students at the Joint
College has been used to support the argument for separation,” the report
states. “President Frederick Humphries demonstrated that academically
well-prepared African American students, who can succeed in engineering, can be
recruited, retained, and graduated. This proof of principle should be
instructive to the leaders of FAMU, FSU, and the Joint College…It appears that
the retirement of President Humphries marked the end of aggressive efforts to
market the Joint College.”
FAMU has had lots of difficulty in maintaining a stable
recruitment program in the years that followed Humphries retirement in 2001. It
has had seven presidencies (three permanent and four interim) in the nearly 13
years that have passed.
The university slipped from its dominance in recruiting
National Achievement Scholars during the presidency of Fred Gainous and did
very little recruiting at all under the interim presidency of Castell Bryant.
Former President James H. Ammons began rebuilding the recruitment program, but
was met with the challenges of tough economic years and harmful changes to the
Pell Grant and PLUS Loan programs.
CBT University Consulting described current FAMU President
Elmira Mangum’s plans for supporting the engineering school in a favorable
light.
“Since the departure of President Humphries in 2001, FAMU
has not grown its support of the Joint College in line with FSU’s increased
support,” the preliminary report states. “This appears to have been due to a
combination of differing financial resources available to FAMU and FSU, but
also a deemphasizing of engineering within FAMU. From quotes and a conversation
with President Mangum, it seems that in her administration FAMU will once again
support the Joint College. However, it will be hard to catch up with the level
of the FSU investment.”