Florida State currently has deanship and budget authority for College of Engineering

Dean Yaw Yeboah and Interim Dean-designate Bruce Locke

On July 1, FAMU stopped having a meaningful say in the operation of the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering (COE). This could continue for as long as a year.

Florida State University replaced FAMU as the fiscal agent of the COE on July 1. FSU employee Yaw Yeboah is still the dean and will continue in that job until his resignation takes effect on July 31. Another FSU employee will then begin serving as the interim dean.

According to a joint press release from FAMU and FSU on June 1: “Marcella David, J.D., provost and vice president for Academic Affairs at FAMU, and Sally McRorie, interim provost and executive vice president for Academic Affairs at FSU announced that Bruce Locke, Ph.D., former chair of the COE Department of Chemical & Biomedical Engineering and currently FSU associate provost, will assume the role of interim dean on Aug. 1.”

The press release also said that “the tenure home for the next dean will rotate to Florida A&M University” and that “a national search for the next dean of the College will begin in the fall.”

Search processes for deans can often take up to an entire year to complete.

The June 1 press release did not explain why a professor with tenure at FSU was chosen as the interim dean when the tenure home of the dean was supposed to be rotating to FAMU. It also did not state whether Locke will be eligible to apply for the permanent job.

FAMU served as the fiscal agent/budget manager for the COE from 1987 through June 30, 2015. The FAMU Board of Trustees has not voted to approve any changes to the 1987 agreement that designated FAMU to carry out those duties.

On June 26, FSU President John Thrasher told his Board of Trustees 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.