Florida A&M University's Board of Trustees met at the university's law school campus in Orlando last Thursday and were addressed again by members of FAMU's faculty and the United Faculty of Florida regarding a pay raise.
"We have received a letter from UFF wanting to restart negotiations," said Interim President Castell Bryant. "We'll begin again soon."
When the board took a short break for lunch, members of the faculty were waiting in the lobby. They held signs showing graphs of raises for faculty around the state. FAMU faculty is the only faculty at a state university that hasn't received a raise in the past three years.
"It sends the wrong message that FAMU is the only one in the state that doesn't have a raise," said Tom Oxter, State President United Faculty of Florida.
The Interim President and the FAMU BOT skirted the calls by the UFF return to the bargaining table and restart salary negotiations. "Not a single meeting has been held. We have tried consistently to get a specific date," said Reginal Beal, Professor of Business, the UFF chief negotiator at FAMU.
Trustee R.B. Holmes Jr., who participated in the meeting via telephone, said "let's get back to the table. If there's a surplus, we should give that back to the faculty of FAMU."
Ironically, the Trustees have given the Interim President $85,000 in bonuses and raises in the past two meeting, but haven't seen fit to provide the FAMU faculty with one nickel in three years of existence.