Alumni lawmakers still ignoring decision to reduce FAMU alumni to minority in appointed BOT seats

Florida A&M University has gone from having six of the 11 appointed seats on its Board of Trustees filled by alumni in 2015 to now only three. At both the University of Florida and Florida State University, alumni have ten of the 11 appointed seats.

But the alumni lawmakers of FAMU still haven’t publicly taken Gov. Rick Scott or the Florida Board of Governors (BOG) to task for this.

Three FAMU Board of Trustees (BOT) vacancies are on the agenda for the BOG meeting that will take place next week January 20-21, 2016 at Florida State University. The terms of BOG appointees Cleve Warren and Karl White have both expired. Spurgeon McWilliams, another BOG appointee, resigned from the FAMU BOT on October 28, 2015.

White and McWilliams are FAMU alumni.

The terms of FAMU alumni Kelvin Lawson and Belinda Shannon, two gubernatorial appointees to the BOT, also expired on January 6, 2016. 

The small number of FAMU alumni that the Florida Governor’s Office and BOG have chosen to appoint to the FAMU BOT is an insult. It suggests that FAMU doesn’t have as many alumni who are up to the task of leadership as UF and FSU.

Rattlers should contact the FAMU alumni in the legislature and ask them why they aren’t publicly criticizing the decision to reduce FAMU alumni to a minority in the 11 appointed seats on the FAMU Board of Trustees.

The FAMU alumni in the Florida Legislature include the following individuals:

Rep. Bobby Powell (bobby.powell@myfloridahouse.gov)

Rep. Mia Jones (mia.jones@myfloridahouse.gov)

Rep. Shevrin Jones (shevrin.jones@myfloridahouse.gov)

Rep. Alan Williams (alan.williams@myfloridahouse.gov)

Sen. Dwight Bullard (bullard.dwight@flsenate.gov)

Sen. Arthenia Joyner (joyner.arthenia@flsenate.gov)