Smith calls BOG member’s remarks to FAMU president, provost “condescending”

On Wednesday, former FAMU President Walter Smith spoke out against a set of comments that Florida Board of Governors (BOG) member Norman Tripp made to the current FAMU president and provost. He called Tripp’s remarks “condescending.”

The statement that led to Smith’s criticism came after FAMU President Elmira Mangum and Provost Marcella David presented the university’s revised Work Plan to the BOG. According to Politico Florida, “Tripp referred specifically to FAMU’s history of serving black students when arguing it must adapt.”

“It just sort of bothers me, I guess, when I hear you say back to me, ‘Well, you know, we have a mission of providing …,” he said without completing the sentence. “We, as a state are trying to provide equal education for everybody. We don’t have separate but equal anymore.”

Tripp’s reference to “separate but equal” received a vocal reaction from some of the FAMU alumni in the room. He paused but then went on to make more comments that a number of FAMU alumni found offensive.

“You two women are very, very bright,” he told Mangum and David.

“I thought it was condescending,” Smith told Politico Florida in response to that comment by Tripp. “First of all, yes, they’re bright. But lots of people are bright. Was he saying that ordinarily women of color are not bright? He could have been interpreted that way.”

Carolyn Collins, former president of the FAMU National Alumni Association, also had a problem with what Tripp said.

“All I can say is I can’t believe that a governor who is coordinating education in the state of Florida would make those kinds of comments in 2015,” she said.

Politico Florida reported that when “asked specifically [what] she found offensive, [Collins] said: ‘Everything he said.’”