Not only has FAMU not paid folks on federal grants and graduate student (TAs), but the University also hasn't paid its light bill and the City of Tallahassee has shutdown power to the campus.
We've received several emails and phone calls from professors who have had to go home because they can't do their work.
We placed a call to the city utilities office and were told that the University is SEVERAL months behind on its bill.
Is this the progress we were promised in the area of financial accountability? Is this what we have to show for two years of audits, consultants, and mass firings in the name of a "financial clean-up?"
ReplyDeleteHow jacked up is the Division of Fiscal/Administrative Affairs when we can't even pay basic utility bills on time? No wonder Gerald Dunn got the hell out of town. He was trying to save his own reputation.
But as usual, Castell Bryant will find a way to pin this on Fred Humphries, Fred Gainous, or Barney Bishop.
Please tell me this ain't true.
ReplyDeleteOh its true!
ReplyDeleteHeaven help us!
Ok, I just called on campus and its true. They have no power. Waiting to see how Castell spins this.
ReplyDeleteWell damn... they can't even have the controller print a rubber check cuz the damn power out!!
ReplyDeleteTSK TSK TSK
This isn't even laughable!
ReplyDeleteHEADS WILL ROLL
ReplyDeleteThis is crazy. I hope Andrew Gillum tears Bryant a new one when she tries to accuse the City of Tallahassee of being unfair to FAMU. Andrew was one of the few FAMUans who came out publicly against Bryant's appointment as interim president.
ReplyDeleteI can already see his quote in the newspaper: "Monthly utility bill payments cannot be excused on the grounds of administrative incompetence."
Physical plant crews are starting to set-up for homecoming today. This is definitely going to put them behind.
ReplyDeleteCan you imagine if the city had waited to turn the power off during the homecoming football game? All the lights in Bragg stadium go out. Then Wilbert Hobbs stands up and screams that it's a divine sign that God loves what Castell is doing at FAMU. It's a miracle! It's a miracle!
she must go!
ReplyDeleteIt's true. I was taking a test in SBI today and the lights went out in the front half of the classroom. After I finished the test, I saw that the hallways were dark in the East Wing and I heard that there were no lights in the South Wing. The computer lab was closed because the lights were out.
ReplyDeleteTHIS IS NOTHING SHORT OF GROSS INCOMPETENCE. HOW DARE THIS SORRY GOOD FOR NOTHING ADMINISTRATION DARKEN THE UNIVERSITY AND FURTHER DARKEN OUR DECLINING REPUTATION.
ReplyDeleteTHIS IS THE LAST STRAW. THERE SHOULD BE MASS FIRINGS STARTING TOMORROW!!
THERE SHOULD BE A FAMU WIDE HELL RAISING (NON-VIOLENT OF COURSE) ALL DAY TOMORROW. STUDENTS, STAFF, FACULTY, ALUMNI, FRIENDS, NEIGHBORS, SHOULD JUST RAISE THE ROOF ALL DAY IN PROTEST OF THIS GROSSLY INCOMPENTENT ADMINISTRATION.
DAY-UM
This is crazy. At what point do you just throw up your hands and go get a job somewhere else? I love FAMU, but... well dam. This is just crazy.
ReplyDeleteso not true!!!! a main transformer on campus went on the blink this afternoon. facilities personnel were immediately on the scene and working with City officials to restore the power.
ReplyDeleteMy aunt works in City Hall. She says FAMU IS behind in their utilities.
ReplyDeletemorale is low
ReplyDeletecasthell has got to go!
...a main transformer on campus went on the blink this afternoon. facilities personnel were immediately on the scene and working with City officials to restore the power.
ReplyDeleteRufus, is that the story you all are using?
I just hope the lights are on by in the morning. We have no hot water in the dorm!
Is it true that the power went out only in the classrooms and offices of faculty members who have fewer than 18 graduate hours in the subjects they are teaching?
ReplyDeleteJust kidding.
No power to the people today. Why is that news?
ReplyDeleteThe FAMUAN
ReplyDeletePower outage interrupts class, businesses
Carnell Hawthorne Jr. and Sakina Bowser
Issue date: 10/20/06 Section: News
The electricity on campus went out at 2:35 p.m. Thursday, leaving Florida A&M University with sunlight as its only source of illumination.
"We don't normally close in the middle of the day, but the power went out," said Angela Williams, bookstore manager. The bookstore closed its gate at 3 p.m. as a result of the outage.
"I was laying on my bed studying and talking on the phone when the power went out," said Luqunda McCoy, 18, a general studies student from Deland.
McCoy said the windows were providing light in the Paddy Foote rooms, but it got extremely hot.
McCoy's roommate called from her job at Gaither Gym to tell her the lights were out there also.
"There were mechanical failures at the FAMU substation, which is where the city provides our power," said LaNedra Carroll, director of university public relations.
"The City of Tallahassee and Metro Electrical Electrical Services have been in a continuous process of upgrading campus power," she said.
Classes were not cancelled, but the university worked to get the power back on so that classes could proceed as normal.
Some instructors in Dyson Pharmacy cancelled classes due to darkness, but other instructors in buildings with an outside source of air continued teaching.
"We were in the middle of a test when the power went out," said Juanita Gaston, a geometry professor.
Her class, located in Tucker Hall, continued testing for about 30 minutes without power.
Within a 45-minute span, the cafeteria had to dispose of the food it was cooking.
J.J. Meeuwsen and W.L. Kling, members of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers of the Netherlands, wrote a report in 1997 that addressed the potential various modes of substation failures.
The power outage could have been a result of an undetected open circuit or a short-circuit fault.
Open circuits are usually considered passive failures that rarely cause complete outages, according to the report. Short-circuits are more common and affect the primary protection zones of and around the specific failed component.
The outage may have be a result of the a breaker sticking or an overlapping of several failures events. These types of modes affect larger sections of a power unit, according to the researchers.
No major fires were reported on campus, although fire trucks from the Tallahassee Fire Department were spotted in several locations.
"A few people were stranded in elevators," Carroll said. But within a matter of minutes, responders arrived to help them get out.
Carroll contacted a representative for the new E2Campus emergency phone-messaging system. The responders were working to send a message to users of the service, she said. In the message, students were encouraged to wait for the power to return to normal.
There were no injuries reported as a result of the outage.
"The university is taking measures to prevent future power outages on campus," Carroll said.
The lights out on campus has nothing to do with FAMU not paying the bill. It has everything to do with a problem with the electric grid on the southside of Tally as other homes and businesses were out of electricity as well.
ReplyDeleteI never wanted to believe the it would ever come to this.One of the greatest HBCUs in American History reduced to this?
ReplyDeleteIt is occurences like these that are ushering in darker days at FAMU.
People laughed in disbelief when FAMU made Black Enterprise's the number School/University for African Americans and a majority know that Castell had absolutley NOTHING to do with that accolade.
If this messs were to had happened at Hampton, Howard, or at Morehouse the Alumni would have someone's head of a tray.
In the meantime, administrators at these schools (who I personally know) constantly call Bryant an idiot and they don't care what her thinks or but they are concerned about the direction that FAMU is headed in-a third rate impotent HBCU.
What happened to all that surplus Castell? You ought to be ashamed of yourself.
Transformer or no transformer. Sub station or no substation. Call it what you want and spin it how you like. The truth of the matter is there are a bunch of incompetents running the university. And CVB is Incompetent #1. What else do you expect from a woman who leads a university with an EdD, online degree from twenty years ago. Go figure. Such things as this shouldn't be happening, because all chacks and balances, all t's should be crossed and all i's should be dotted when it comes to something as BASIC as making sure the university has LIGHTS. Hello? This isn't rocket science. Damn.
ReplyDeletePeople need to quit assuming FAMU is behind on their utilities. Lets all understand that FAMU is a multi millior dollar corporation. I highly doubt they are behind on Utilities. If this were true the Tallahassee Democrat woulda been all over this story.
ReplyDeleteI understand, FSU is a tad bit behind on their utility bill too. So this must be a common problem.
ReplyDeleteBut WE do know for a FACT that FAMU shorted folks on grants and hasn't paid grad student TAs, and that ain't been in the Democrat!!!!!!
1. What else do you expect from a woman who leads a university with an EdD, online degree from twenty years ago.
ReplyDeleteIt ain't the degree...it's the person.
I ain't slammin anyone who has a degree from an accredited university however I am all for callin out incompetent fools.
I teach at Nova...standard and online classes and believe me when I say, while there is sufficent rigor within the curriculum, you can only teach a "natural fool" so much.
Peace be unto you Snake...
The Board of Trustees should neveh, eveh hired a person who has a EdD degree from an online school. Say what you will and defend the EdD-degreed president's degree if you will, but maybe the woman still has an online degree. Now whether or not this has anything to do with her incompetence, look at Fred Gainous & his EdD, Debra Austin & her EdD degree. What do all these people have in common? They all come from from community colleges. I rest my case.
ReplyDeleteI agree that CVB is a "natural" fool, but does this mean that there is a counterpart to the natural fool, such as the unnatural fool?
ReplyDeletelook at Fred Gainous & his EdD, Debra Austin & her EdD degree. What do all these people have in common? They all come from from community colleges. I rest my case.
ReplyDeleteAgain, all you have pointed out are, in this case, three people with flaws...that Ph.D's hired at some level.
No one is in here defending anything except the fact that anyone who judges all people by the foolishness of a few is just plain ignorant.
Now, I am the first to agree with the fact that the 3 you have mentioned weren't worth crap but then again there are some Ph.D's earned or brought that have shortcomings as well.
I couldn't care less if the next President has J.D, Ed.D. or Ph.D if they have some mofo'in sense and a profound love for FAMU and her legacy.
Defend the EdD-degreed administrators if you must, and apparently you must, in view of the fact that you, too, must have one of those degrees. EdDs vs PhDs,
ReplyDeleteBryant vs. Humphrey. Castell, Debra and Fred G: all EdDs, all community college adminstrators. How much further must the case be rested. In case you might be wondering if I even HAVE a degree, well, yes, I do. And it's not an EdD degree; it's a real terminal degree from a REAL research institution. Yes, I have an earned PhD. I ain' mad at you for defending YOUR EdD, but my degree is real. My case is still rested.Hello.
Apparently your Ph.D. isn't in reading and comprehension.
ReplyDeleteYou don't know me however my Ph.D. is from the University of Iowa...now while that may not be as "prestigious" as yours but nevertheless, what I have found is that all my Ph.D. degree has done for me is realize that I have a lot more to learn so I haven't nor will ever stop learning.
I just made an observation that you seem to place more value on the degree than the worth of the person.
I am not in this to debate with you and I wish you and your comfortable lifestyle, (no doubt because you hold a Ph.D. from a REAL research institution, which by the way, I don't recall ever calling into question, I guess you felt it necessary to put that out there)the absolute best.
I don't have a case to rest...it is not my issue, I will just crawl back into my hole with my inadequate Ph.D. and try to learn more about life and people like you.
Goodbye