Challis Lowe’s blind faith in the interim president is Lowe’s apparent refusal to acknowledge that Bryant brought little more than community college experience to the interim presidency. Yet, under Lowe’s leadership the board has given Bryant unfettered authority to make long-range systemic, structural and programmatic changes as though she were a nationally acclaimed consultant or a higher education administrator with experience beyond the community college level.
Roosevelt Wilson, makes some great points in today's Capital Outlook Viewpoint. Check it out: BOT Needs New Leadership
So, it seems Roosevelt ain't gone be happy with nobody.
ReplyDeleteHey, Rosey, while the search committee is out throw your hat into the ring.
As alumni, we can't watch FAMU be destroyed the way it is obviously being done now. We have to make a stand and stop this madness. No I am not active in FAMU NAA but since I've moved to a new city I plan on joining,b/c this has to stop!
ReplyDeleteThat's the ONLY way folks are gonna get their voices heard ... By becoming a part of the SOLUTION - And not remaining a part of the problem!
ReplyDeleteOUR inactivity, and not being active in the handling of our OWN affairs in the past is the PRIMARY reason we have found ourselves in the predicament we're in ... And if WE don't get both "Serious - AND Active", we will once again find ourselves with having nothing more than more of the same!
I just hope more of the posters will follow your lead ... And finally decide to get ACTIVE!!
Challis Lowe is no one to talk about professionalism after exhibiting the conduct that led to her termination from Ryder.
ReplyDelete2:31 Why was Challis Lowe terminated from Ryder?
ReplyDeletePlease, please stop the madness!The FAMU Board of Trustees' problem is not its leadership. The FAMU BOT's problem is the Board itself. The leader of the Board is chosen by the Board members. Additionally, since the fundamental requirement to be a member of any of Florida's state universities BOTs is to be a loyal member of the Republican Pary, it strikes me as disingenous for many of us to complain about the Black Republicans who dominate FAMU's Board. What, in God's name, did you expect from Black Republicans? Competence? A commitment to the needs of real Black people? A sincere desire to improve a virtually all-black state university? Give me a break! FAMU's problems began the moment the state legislature abolished the Board of Regents--because the Regents refused to establish a medical school at FSU. This new form of governance in Florida higher education is the culprit. Legislators knew that if each state university had to govern itself, FAMU would be the weakest link in the chain, and would certainly, in due time, began to self-destruct! The belief that Black people cannot govern themselves is virtually universal, even among many Black people, themselves. In fact, that's a part of the reason much of the discussion here is essentially "gossip;" direct personal attacks on other Black people; and, a plethora a negative so-called "thoughts" and ill-informed opinions. No the BOT does not necessarily need new leadership; it needs new members, members who sincerely want to improve this state's only public HBCU. As long as the Republican Party continues to control Florida politics, the chances of this happening are slim to none!
ReplyDeleteHubba dat, 3:40!
ReplyDelete3:40--Spoken like a champ.
ReplyDeleteSo it's the Republicans fault? Was it they who set up ghost employees, was it they who hired close friends over qualified applicants, was it they who lacked general accounting practices? It seems the poster above needs look no farther than his own statements to find the negative, attacking, and gossipy post that he comments on. Black Republicans, The Republican Party and Jeb Bush don't care. Stop blaming others for FAMU's problems.
ReplyDeleteglady's daughter (LL)
ReplyDeletean accountant who isnt a CPA
a lawyer who is a bar member or hasnt even passed the bar
unqualified JUCO adminstrators manning the FAMU ship...isnt that present day FAMU? Who did that to us?
an aside, the hazing trial was on Court TV more shame and disgrace to our prestigious instituttion. Yeah they finally got to Hollywood...at our expense.
Re: 12/02 9:20 AM
ReplyDeleteCastell has not identified any ghost employees yet. When questioned by a Republican Senator, she told him, the bogus payroll audit did not show any ghost employees. LL and her sons were getting duplicate checks, huh. LL is still on the payroll at FAMU. The law school mess was Castell's way of trying to flex her "want-to-be muscles" against Cunningham. Where is she with the charges against him? Castell has sold her every being to the "Devil" himself.
T.K. is a former juco admnistrator, and saying Castell is not qualified because she was a past community college administrator is a bit baffling. Dr. Law at TCC just raised 10 million dollars for his school and TCC is moving forward with campus master plan. My point is this you cannot put all the blame on Castell for the current problems today. The problems started along time ago and measures must be taken to curb them. You may not agree with Castell and Co., but change has to come. There is a bigger problem. Young black men and women are being recruited away by bigger institutions. HBCU's are struggling to find a mission, which is the big issue that FAMU is facing. Young Blacks are deciding to go to UF, FSU, USF, UCF, etc. over FAMU.
ReplyDeleteAn audit discovered ghost employess long before duplicate checks. to think the very adminstrators who are suppose to look out for famu are doing this is a joke, but to put blame on the republicans is even funnier...ha ha....just do a google search and see for yourself. Blame cannot be put on Castell shoulders alone. Sold herself to the devil? How much for I might be interested. Does god have a price to? Let's make some money!!!!
ReplyDeleteT.K. is former speaker of the Florida House and multi-million dollar fundraiser. He was hired because of his political muscle, not his TCC experience. Truth be told, T.K. would have been hired as FSU's president even if he hadn't spent one day leading TCC.
ReplyDeleteBryant is not T.K. by a long shot.
well then don't make the statement about castell being a juco administrator therefore unqualified. Look at all the great things law is doing for tcc. castell was hired to clean house...which was and still is messy. if famu thinks some heavy weight is going to come into the current hornets nest y'all are crazy....
ReplyDeleteJUCO administrators are not qualified for university presidencies. T.K. qualified for the FSU presidency because of his political clout.
ReplyDeleteCastell's so-called housecleaning has worsened FAMU's financial situation by creating a $10M deficit. The worst in years. That's not progress.
Uhh...wasn't Walter Smith a one time JUCO administrator.
ReplyDeleteThere is someone extremely intimiate with this blog with a "hard on" for dissing JUCO administrators or for that matter Ed.D's.
I never knew so much venom existed for administrators with JUCO experience.
Just because the current president is an idiot...well, you make the call.
Lets face it, Castell's ignorance has nothing to do with her EdD or CC experience. It has everything to do with her mean-spirited attitude and inability to lead. She is not an educator or good administrator. What she is good at is faking and covering-up the whole truth. She has a unique ability as a scam artist. She has pulled the wool over many a people face including the FAMU BOT. She sold them a pack of lies and continues to do do at the expense of tearing down FAMU. Castell is the biggest liar we have ever encountered at this level and we are all amazed at how she has gotten this far. We will look back in a few years and "wonder how we got over", yet another attempt to dis-mantel this great institution.
ReplyDeleteYes, Walter Smith was a JUCO administrator. He was not qualified for the FAMU presidency by a long shot.
ReplyDeleteAlumni all across Rattler Country were rightfully outraged that B.L. Perry, a president who came to the job with senior-level university administrative experience, was being replaced by someone whose qualifications were far less.
In fairness to Smith, FAMU was then a very small institution with about 3,000 and only a handful of graduate programs.
However, we are no longer in the late 1970s. FAMU has to compete in a university system in which the majority of institutions have already reached research status on the Carnegie classification system.
Community college administration does not prepare an individual for the demands of graduate education, research, and university-level athletics.
T.K. kept the previous president's entire senior administrative team when he came into office. Provost Larry Abele, a veteran university administrator, continues to run the day-to-day affairs on campus. T.K. spends most of his time off-campus lobbying and fundraising. T.K. was hired for his political clout, not his JUCO experience.
Anyone who believes that JUCOs are qualified to run FAMU either doesn't understand university education or has no standards for our institution.
"Anyone who believes that JUCOs are qualified to run FAMU either doesn't understand university education or has no standards for our institution."
ReplyDeleteobviously the no standards for our institution statement is appropriate for the way things have been run long before your juco administrator started work as famu's president. Some of the outrage on this board should be targeted at humphrey as well.
Here's some juco thinking at FAMU:
ReplyDeleteGive all faculty members 4 or 5 courses to teach (unless they buy out time with paid grants) (the effect would be to scare away all productive scholars);save money;
Get rid of most adjuncts; save money;
Hire cheap, inexperienced advisers to mislead students; save money;
Keep admitting thousands of underqualified, undermotivated students (to keep enrollment up), who should be living at home and attending a nearby community college;
Continue to underfund remedial programs (no longer called that, out of misguided respect for students needing remediation);
Keep padding the freshman and sophomore classes with such students and watching the junior class numbers crash (as they have been doing);
Keep seniors for 5, 6, 7 years (keeps up enrollment).
Keep filling FAMU jobs with FAMU grads.
That would make FAMU even more like a community college than it already is.
Seems to me that anybody with an ounce of sense can figure out that a good leader knows when to lead and follow.
ReplyDeleteIn the spirit of TK Weatherall, FSU probably was of the mind set when they set it up that he would be the face of the university and go out and raise money while the experienced senior staff remained in tact and ran the school.
TK marching order's were don't screw up and we will make you THE MAN...in the eyes of everybody else.
I wonder what kind of President
Fred Gainous would have turned out to be if he kept some real expertise around him.
you can say what you want...he wasn't mean spirited
Well said Anonymous @ 12/03/2006 2:32 AM
ReplyDeleteAnonymous at 12/03/2006 11:57 AM, I too wonder what type of president Gainous would have made. If only he had a brain, a heart and some courage.
ReplyDelete>>>obviously the no standards for our institution statement is appropriate for the way things have been run long before your juco administrator started work as famu's president. Some of the outrage on this board should be targeted at humphrey as well.<<<
ReplyDeleteObviously, you are not a real FAMUan because every true Rattler understands how to spell the 8th president's name correctly.
Humphries did indeed have high standards for FAMU. He boosted enrollment, research grants, private donations, and graduate programs. He also got FAMU's accreditation successfully reaffirmed every year.
Humphries was not perfect. There were financial accounting problems and personnel problems. FAMUans wanted Castell Bryant to build on Humphries' accomplishments and improve the areas in which he was weak.
Instead, Bryant turned back the clock on FAMU's growth and worsened the existing financial problems by racking up larger deficits. The state auditors stated that she failed to even turn in all the basic information required for auditing purposes. That's incompetence, not improvement.
i'm not a real famuan because of a typo...excuse me humphries...he boosted enrollment with what kind of students....not good ones when you are graduating less than 50 percent. famu needs outside help, fresh ideas and a new direction. humphries was president when famu was not accountable. it would be interesting to see what opinion people would have of him if his every move was under the microscope like castell.
ReplyDeleteFAMU did attract outstanding students. We never fell out of the top 5 in recruiting National Achievement Scholars from 1988-2002. The National Achievement Scholars boosted FAMU's overall SAT scores and GPAs.
ReplyDeleteFAMU's graduation rate was an area that needed improvement under Humphries. Many of FAMU's students had poor training in high school. That's why recruiting more National Achievement Scholars made sense.
Bryant's approach is to not recruit at all. That makes absolutely no sense. That is not bringing "outside help, fresh ideas and a new direction." That is called making an existing problem worst.
bryant also inherited a school that was spending more than the state gave it. how can you expect famu to go out and spend money on recruiting when it is in a complete mess. you don't like byrant that is fine, but hiring someone new is not going to fix things overnight. the incoming president will have the same problems. gainous was reported as saying it would take 8 years to turn things around....do a google search and read his comments.
ReplyDeleteFAMU was not a complete mess when Bryant came in. The recruitment program was a successful venture that made money for the university. As FAMU's enrollment increased, the institution received more money from the state's full-time-equivalent funding and tuition and fee payments.
ReplyDeleteWhen a university is in a financial crisis, you cut down the divisions that are not producing revenue and put more resources into those that are. Bryant shut down the recruitment program and replaced it with nothing. That worsened the existing financial problems and contributed greatly to the $10M deficit we suffered during her year.
Plus, Bryant's numbers about the financial shortfall she inherited were not substantiated with hard evidence. She initially claimed that there was a $50M deficit when she entered office. She later backed off that number and claimed there was only a $3M deficit. But still she has failed to provide any evidence to prove that number to the state auditor general's office.
RN provided the correct deficit when they compared Castell's financial audit with Gainous' and Humphries'. By far Castell had the worst deficit and actually lost assets.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous @ 12/03/2006 5:52 PM, can you explain Castell's deficit?
"FAMU was not a complete mess when Bryant came in" o.k. you win it is all castell's fault....no wait, what planet are you from? i give up....she is the reason famu is a glorified high school. how did she take a "powerhouse" like famu and turn it into nothing more than grade 13. to answer your question....no i cannot explain castell's deficit, but it might have to do with restructuring the mess that you deny that was famu's state of affairs. an your increased enrollment does not many anything when you can't graduate from school which means a mere 50 percent of the student body. but hey that is castell's fault as well. where is humphries when we need....laughing all the way to the bank!!!! ha ha ha
ReplyDelete>>>no i cannot explain castell's deficit, but it might have to do with restructuring the mess that you deny that was famu's state of affairs.<<<
ReplyDeleteNo, the deficit has more to do with Castell's own bad financial decisions. Recklessly cutting programs like recruitment and research that produce money for the university is sure to send you backwards financially.
If Bryant could find money for KPMG, the Hollins Group, and the personal friends she hired and/or gave raises, then she could have found enough money to keep the recruitment program in-tact.
>>>an your increased enrollment does not many anything when you can't graduate from school which means a mere 50 percent of the student body.<<<
A decreased enrollment does mean something. It means stiff, multi-million dollar financial penalties from the State of Florida. FAMU has not met the minimum enrollment numbers for its Full Time Equivalent funding. That means the state cuts our funding by millions.
Now, as a result of Bryant's irresponsible cuts to the recruitment program, FAMU has even less money to use to improve its academic instruction and raise its graduation rate.
Again, Bryant promised to turn FAMU around financially. So she must be evaluated by that standard.
The record is clear:
-A $10M deficit and NO surplus;
-Multi-million dollar losses in FTE funding as a result of declining enrollment (caused by shutting down the recruitment);
-Millions lost in research grant dollars (caused by cutting the research division in half);
-Millions lost in private giving because of a lack of fundraising;
-Millions lost in the principal of the Foundation due to irresponsible spending.
Humphries was not perfect as an administrator. But one thing he knew how to do was make money. Bryant is turning back the clock on the financial prosperity FAMU experienced as a result of Humphries' recruitment and fundraising success.
ok you have convinced me it is all castell's fault. however i will leave with a shot over the bow.
ReplyDelete"If Bryant could find money for KPMG, the Hollins Group, and the personal friends she hired and/or gave raises, then she could have found enough money to keep the recruitment program in-tact."
the state wanted to bring their own people in but castell played the race card. with regard to hiring friends obviously that is not in the best interest of famu, but what makes her any different from humphries, and the other usual suspects.
"A decreased enrollment does mean something. It means stiff, multi-million dollar financial penalties from the State of Florida. FAMU has not met the minimum enrollment numbers for its Full Time Equivalent funding. That means the state cuts our funding by millions"
no kidding that is why famu has put enrollment numbers ahead of everything else and that chicken has finally come home to roost. the majority of students can't make it past their sophmore year.
"Humphries was not perfect as an administrator. But one thing he knew how to do was make money. Bryant is turning back the clock on the financial prosperity FAMU experienced as a result of Humphries' recruitment and fundraising success."
he did know how to make money and that was to boost enrollment and to prop up numbers knowing that the majority of these students would not make it and provide nothing for them. appearances were everything but when it all hit the fan the thing the public found was substance lacking. as mentioned before gainous has said that it would take 8 years to correct matters. give castell a chance to get things in the right direction. there is no quick fix and it very well might be to late. i look for the next administrator to change the mission and to boost enrollment with more non blacks.
>>>with regard to hiring friends obviously that is not in the best interest of famu, but what makes her any different from humphries, and the other usual suspects.<<<
ReplyDeleteHumphries did indeed hire many of his friends. No one debates that hiring people based on friendship rather than qualifications is wrong. The simple point was that Bryant prioritized getting money for her friends above getting money for more critical areas like recruitment and research.
>>>[Humphries] did know how to make money and that was to boost enrollment and to prop up numbers knowing that the majority of these students would not make it and provide nothing for them. appearances were everything but when it all hit the fan the thing the public found was substance lacking.<<<
The main reason for FAMU's low graduation rate has little to do with academic achievement and everything to do with money.
Most FAMU students do not fail out of school. The problem is that 80% of FAMU's students are on need based financial aid. They cannot afford to take full course loads each semester and that slows them down. Many are forced to drop out of school because Pell Grants, Stafford Loans, and private loan amounts simply are not enough to cover university-level education anymore.
The answer to this problem is to lobby the state for more need-based funding like a group of FAMU student leaders successfully did last year. Cutting the recruitment program is not the answer. FAMU cannot make a case to the legislature for receiving more need-based scholarship money when its enrollment numbers are plummeting.
Priority for new legislative funding always goes to the universities that are experiencing the most growth in enrollment and research.
what's the infatuation with crowding our esteemed and illustrious university with non-blacks. we are an HBCU, shoudlnt we strive to continue in our quest in the educating of black people? No wonder howard stayed private.
ReplyDeleteguys get your facts together.Famu was never been in Financial Mess under Humpharies. Check out Financial Statements During his period. 1985 through June 30 2002.Give a man credit for what he has done for the University
ReplyDeleteDo you really trust this BOT to select a high quality next President of FAMU? Remember, the Holmes-Corbin connection selected Gainous. Now this same board, being run by Corbin behind the scenes, will select a "permanent" president? Gov-elect Crist needs to re-shuffle the FAMU BOT with a quickness. Anyone with ties to James Corbin MUST GO! Challis Lowe...GOTTA GO!
ReplyDeleteOK 12/04/2006 3:09 PM, you are being delusional. The finances were a mess under Humpharies. Those in administrative positions were using money intended for students and the running of the school as their personal accounts to use at their discretion. Checks and balances did not exist!! He was great for FAMU as far increasing scholarship and academic achievements, but he destroyed the school financially.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous @ 12/06/2006 8:08 AM
ReplyDeleteDelusional? Do you have any facts (not suppositions) to back these atrocious statements up? There has never been one audit, investigation by the FDLE, Attorney General or Chief Inspector Generals offices to even hint at this prevarication.
The link to the Capital Outlook was one of Roosevelt eating crow about the rumors that were just as much garbage as the posts of the delusional person who posts as Da' Rattler.
ReplyDelete