Treatment of Yeboah a stain on FAMU-FSU College of Engineering’s reputation

big rattler
0
Yaw D. Yeboah, a native of Ghana, became the first black dean of the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering (COE) on July 1, 2012. He then abruptly announced his resignation less than three years later amid a shakeup that handed new FSU President John Thrasher all the cards for deciding the future of the deanship.  

Yeboah had emphasized the diversity component of the COE mission during his short time as the dean.

“Time is a gift that we have to use to grow, produce and serve — which is synonymous with the motto of the college: ‘Quality, Growth and Diversity,’” he said during his first year. “My long-term plan is for the college to grow strategically, be diverse and have nationally ranked engineering programs from both the academic and research viewpoints.”

But the new focus of the COE and its current deanship search appears to be Thrasher’s goal of helping FSU become one of the top 25 public universities.

The appointment of a COE dean is decided jointly by the presidents of FAMU and FSU. Both presidents must agree on a candidate before an individual can be hired to that job. Back in 2012, FAMU President James H. Ammons and FSU President Eric Barron agreed to choose Yeboah to head the COE.

Ammons liked Yeboah’s proven commitment to historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). Yeboah had previously served as an associate dean at Clark Atlanta University (CAU), an HBCU, and built an engineering program there. He was also the technical director of the Research Center for Science and Technology at CAU from 1995 to 2004.

One of Yeboah’s accomplishments at CAU was serving as the co-principal investigator for a $498,966 National Science Foundation grant for a Computer Science, Engineering and Mathematics Scholarship Program from 2000 to 2004.

“Since its inception, Clark Atlanta University has been vitally concerned with ameliorating the acute underrepresentation of African Americans and other minorities in technical fields such as science, mathematics, engineering and technology (SMET),” Yeboah and his co-principal investigator Larry Earvin wrote in the abstract of the grant proposal. They stated that the grant would help that work at CAU by “increasing the number of scholarship opportunities available to undergraduate SEM students.”

Barron liked Yeboah’s achievements at Pennsylvania State University as department head of the John and Willie Leone Family Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering from 2004 to 2012. Barron was on the faculty of Penn State from 1986 to 2006.

When Yeboah became the dean of the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering in 2012, he spoke on a regular basis about the need to increase diversity at the college and in professional engineering jobs.

“There’s tremendous opportunity to take advantage of having an HBCU and a majority institution with a strong research component. It provides such an opportunity to enhance diversity,” Yeboah said in a 2012 Tallahassee Democrat article.

Barron and Interim President Larry Robinson both agreed in the same article.

“Sadly, engineering has been one of those degrees that has had a very low diversity over time,” Barron told the newspaper. “This is a program that can have a significant impact in altering that story.”

“Both FAMU and FSU are contributing to a very critical role in diversifying the workforce with this partnership. We should never lose sight of this,” Robinson said in the article. 

FAMU and FSU later announced in a June 2015 press release that Yeboah, who is a professor with tenure at FSU, would step down on July 31. The press release said his “interim” replacement would be FSU Associate Provost Bruce Locke beginning on August 1 and that the tenure home for the permanent dean would be at FAMU.

FAMU President Elmira Mangum still hasn’t explained why an engineering professor with tenure at FAMU wasn't chosen for the interim deanship even though the university has a number of faculty members who are fully qualified for the job. Thrasher needed Mangum’s agreement for Locke to be jointly appointed as the interim dean.

FAMU now has a vacant faculty line that is designated for the permanent dean but can’t be filled until Thrasher gives his approval for that individual to be jointly appointed.

Yeboah’s exit from the deanship appears to have nothing to do with his performance in the job and everything to do with the political dealings that cleared the way for Thrasher to get what he wants. The way Yeboah was treated is a stain on the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering.

Post a Comment

0Comments

Post a Comment (0)

#buttons=(Accept !) #days=(20)

Our website uses cookies to enhance your experience. Check Now
Accept !