Alumni hold most seats on NCA&T BOT, only 2 alumni in appointed seats on FAMU BOT

L-R: Bertram E. Walls, Donna A. James, Toby Brodie, William A. Dudley, 

Janice Bryant Howroyd, Timothy King, and Faye Tate Williams

North Carolina A&T University is experiencing record success.

Back in 2014, NCA&T replaced Florida A&M University as the No. 1 largest single campus historically black college or university. NCA&T is also home to one of the top football programs in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference. The university won the Celebration Bowl in 2015 and received an at-large bid to the National Collegiate Athletic Association Playoffs in 2016.

One asset that NCA&T has is a very strong Board of Trustees (BOT). Seven of the 12 appointed seats on the university’s BOT are held by alumni.

The alumni members of the NCA&T are Bertram E. Walls (Chair), Donna A. James (Secretary), Toby Brodie, William A. Dudley, Janice Bryant Howroyd, Timothy King, and Faye Tate Williams.

The governor of North Carolina appoints four of the BOT members and the University of North Carolina Board of Governors appoints eight. The Student Government Association (SGA) president also serves as an ex-officio member.

FAMU went from having six of the 11 appointed seats on its Board of Trustees filled by alumni in 2015 to now only two. At both the University of Florida and Florida State University, alumni hold the majority of the 11 appointed seats.

For state university BOTs in Florida, the governor appoints six members and the Florida Board of Governors (BOG) appoints five. The SGA president and Faculty Senate president serve as ex-officio members.

The FAMU National Alumni Association has spoken out publicly about the problem. But so far Gov. Rick Scott and the BOG haven’t announced any intention to correct it.

No candidate in Florida gubernatorial race at this time has publicly promised to work to restore the alumni majority on the FAMU BOT, if elected.