FAMU’s policy for the past 28 years has been that it wants
to serve as the fiscal agent/budget manager of the FAMU-FSU College of
Engineering (COE). That was established by a 1987 agreement between FAMU and
FSU that received the approval of the Board of Regents, which was the
policy-making body for both of the universities at the time. The FAMU Board of
Trustees adopted that policy when the Florida law made it the new policy-making
body for the university in 2001.
But six years later, Interim President Castell V. Bryant
said she had no problem with a legislative plan to transfer the COE fiscal
agent/budget manager duties from FAMU to FSU. A Tallahassee Democrat article
from March 30, 2007 stated that “after discussing it with [FSU President T.K. Wetherell],
she said she was fine with the change.”
“It was OK with them for FAMU to be the fiscal agent for 10 years, so why wouldn’t it be OK with me for FSU to be fiscal agent for a while?” she said.
The FAMU Board of Trustees met days later to reaffirm its policy
that FAMU should be fiscal agent/budget manager for the COE. It then issued a
press release stating that: “During an emergency meeting of the Florida A&M
University Board of Trustees Monday (April 9), board members decided in a
unanimous vote to let Florida legislators know they want the fiscal control of
the joint FAMU-FSU College of Engineering to remain with FAMU.”
House Policy & Budget Council Chair Ray Sansom and Rep.
Curtis Richardson succeeded in getting their chamber to put the $10.4M COE
appropriation back in FAMU’s general revenue budget. Sen. Alfred “Al” Lawson
convinced the Florida Senate to do the same.
On June 3 of this year, current FSU President John Thrasher told his
Board of Trustees that FSU will be the new fiscal agent for the FAMU-FSU College
of Engineering (COE). The statement came despite the fact that the FAMU Board
of Trustees did not take a vote to approve any changes to the 1987 agreement
before that announcement.
At another FSU board meeting on June 26, Thrasher said that
FAMU agreed to transfer its fiscal agent status for the College of Engineering
to FSU. He did not specify who had agreed to that policy change on behalf of
FAMU.