Under Castell Bryant's watch FAMU has experienced:
• 2,300 fewer students
• Alarming budget cuts
• Zero National Achievement Scholars recruited
• A decline in FAMU enrollment at the Engineering School from 800 to 300
• Plummeting SAT/ACT scores for incoming freshman
• Declining GPAs for incoming freshman
• One of the lowest graduation rates in the state
• Low faculty morale
• The SBI Eight
• One of the worst audits in over 20 years
• Declining Corporate and Foundation Support
• And, over 122 new law suits
Da rattler when did she make this speech?
ReplyDeleteOk, so what else is new? This is old. Give me some news I can use.
ReplyDeleteBullet #4: What does CVB have to do with plummeting SAT/ACT scores of incoming freshmen? She didn't have a thing to do with what the students had when they got there. Don't blame her for that while you're in the blame game. The university merely accepted the students. If you want to blame someone, blame the students themselves or their parents for the low score. She didn't take the tests for these children. They took the tests themselves. Let's keep it real.
ReplyDeleteAlso, point number 5 about the declining gpa's---Castell doesn't have anything to do with that. That sounds like a personal problem, not a Castell/university problem. apparently, the students' gpa's weren't high when they were in high school. Castell might be rightfully blamed for a few of the other things you've listed, but what those students had before they set foot on the campus surely ain' castell's fault, although I'm sure you'd like to blame her for the sun being hot as well.
ReplyDeleteWhen, and if, Castell leaves in March?, this web site is going to be BORING, because, like Richard Nixon, you won't have Castell to talk about anymore. Because the meat of this web site is all about castell bryant. i've noticed that no one comments on the good stuff, but everyone has a voice for the bad stuff about castell. whatcha gonna do when she's gone? everybody loves to complain. castell's going back to where the h*ll she's from and then, what? Are you gonna make up some new stuff to complain about?
ReplyDeleteThis blog is the #1 source for positive news about FAMU. It has more positive news stories about our university than www.famu.edu. Most of the time, RN beats the local newspapers in posting positive stories about our university.
ReplyDeleteAfter Bryant, RN will continue to be the best place to read about all the great alumni success stories, student accomplishments, faculty research, and ambitious administrative initiatives in Rattler Country.
When Bryant's gone, this blog can also continue to carry the flag for Board of Trustees change. Challis Lowe and W. George Allen must go! We can all work together to lobby Gov. Charlie Crist to launch a state investigation of their gross dereliction of duty as FAMU trustees.
ReplyDeleteWe need RN to continue serving as a
FAMU watchdog, especially with James Corbin still on the prowl.
At one time Castell said with pride what happened at FAMU BC - Before Castell. But now that we've seen what happened DC - During Castell - we can't wait to hurry up and get to AC - After Castell - and AL - After Lowe - and AWGA - After Willie George Allen - and AH - After Holmes. Hell, we just need a whole new board. APBOT - After Present Board of Trustees!
ReplyDelete12/10/2006 12:09 AM & 12/10/2006 12:14 AM, I guess folk are used to what Humphries did to recruit better student. I guess the inferences that should be made is that with true leadership, one would expect a better university. If someone does not fund recruitment or go out to personally recruit great students, then they will not be there. I am not sure that you made that jump in logic - cuz it seems as though you believe the $10M surplus.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous @12:20 said this web site is going to be BORING after Castell and ask: "whatcha gonna do when she's gone?" We will dance in the street and sing "ding-dong the wicked witch is gone."
ReplyDeleteRN will always be an interesting site, because it not only give the "BAD and UGLY" about FAMU, it also gives the GOOD.
whether or not cvb recruited students or not, the students who CAME to the university with low scores is NOT the woman's fault, nor, again, what the INCOMING gpa's were OF those students who CAME. the students came with what they had. Now, what they did when they got there, well, that's another whole story. You can't blame the woman for what students BRING to the table. Who and what she recruited out there in the world, well, that's another whole ballgame. Humphries went out and recruited scholarly students; it wasn't his fault that those students with lesser gpa's and poor SAT/ACT performances CAME to the university. I believe that the bullet points that are outlined by RN says "Incoming" and "Declining gpa's." Can CVB recruit a FULL freshman class of scholars with 4.0 gpa's? She can recruit scholars, yes, but again, those who elect to come to the University without those academic credentials is not her fault. The operative word is: Incoming.
ReplyDeleteWhen the new president comes aboard, there's no telling what misdeeds s/he will uncover from this present administration. Don't think the madness is over just yet.
ReplyDelete12/10/2006 12:09 AM
ReplyDeleteBullet #4: What does CVB have to do with plummeting SAT/ACT scores of incoming freshmen?
12/10/2006 12:09 AM
Also, point number 5 about the declining gpa's---Castell doesn't have anything to do with that.
Here's how I understand it: Almost immediately upon her arrival, Dr. Bryant shut off the promise of financial aid to prospective students and shut down all spending on recruitment. She also did nothing but bad mouth the University she claims to love and lead.
The result was a disastrous drop in enrollment.
Upon realizing the serious financial impact of this, she ordered her admissions folks to begin calling people who had been turned down for admission previously, and beg them to come. That is why she is being held rightfully accountable for the drops in SATs and GPAs!
Castell deterred so many quality students away from enrolling at FAMU that admission standards had to be sropped. That's where the low GPA/SAT/ACT students came from. Nowadays, all you have to have to get into FAMU is a body temperature above 32 degree Farenheit.
ReplyDeleteAs a leader, you can't accept the good without the bad. We have been educating less students, which may end up hurting FAMU in the long run. What's so hard about understanding something as basic as a drop in enrollment and scholars?
ReplyDeleteWe can do what we want to, but someone chose not to do those things, for one reason or another.
You can't say that we can't afford to give scholarships, when we can afford to give KPMG a million dollars for doing nothing.
But we still aren't talking about the ones who DIDN't come, we're talking about the ones who actually came, who, perhaps, were coming anyway. While I understand the logic in recruiting vs not recruiting, the woman still can't be held totally accountable for what their gpa's/SAT scores were when they decided to come to the university anyway, regardless of whether they were recruited or not. These students were going somewhere; they happened to come to FAMU. I know that the students who were initially denied entrance to the university were later recruited, but that has nothing to do with the students who were coming anyway.She can't be held accountable for an entire class of freshmen students who had poor academic performance from the jump. They were going to wind up in someone's college, it just so happens that they wound up at FAMU. They weren't denied, they weren't recruited; they just came. Bad grades and all. Is the woman responsible for all of the freshman students who come to the university? No, she is not. Is she responsible for outlining an attractive package for scholars to come. Presumably, yes. But an attractive package for all incoming freshman is impossible. Many freshmen students wanted to go to a university, and FAMU was their (perhaps only) place that the chance of being accepted to a university. we aren't talking about a selected few; we're talking about a great number of students who did not have the academic scholarship in the first place who wanted to come and were accepted.
ReplyDeleteCan someone tell us if we have lower our standards for admissions? Are we taking students with SAT/ACT scores and GPAs that do met the minimum requirement just to have warm bodies?
ReplyDeleteSomething has definitely happened if the average test scores and gpas have decreased. Does anyone care to take a stab at why they have decreased?
You're right. They were most likely the students who were going to come to FAMU. This is no different than in the 80s, prior to the Humphries era.
ReplyDeleteFAMU was a big "family" school. Someone in your family went to FAMU (mother, father, aunt, uncle, cousin, etc.), and you didn't have much of a choice, nor did you really have a desire to go elsewhere.
When Hump came in, he recruited the students outside of the family, bringing more prestige to a university that was then sitting at around 5,000 students.
Fast forward to Castell:
Nothing has been done in terms of recruiting those same types of students that we went after during the Humphries era. As a matter of fact, we CUT the amount of recruiting that we were doing.
If you know anything about recruiting, if you get a NAS scholar, you best believe they have a close friend who they will bring with them, almost like a 2-for-1 deal, and THAT brings up the GPAs, SATs, ACTs, and other scores and numbers up.
I challenge anyone to go back to the 80s and see where we were academically, and I would bet you that we were in the same place (in terms of admitting students) as we are now, and that's not good.
12/11/2006 2:00 PM siad:
ReplyDelete"These students were going somewhere; they happened to come to FAMU. I know that the students who were initially denied entrance to the university were later recruited, but that has nothing to do with the students who were coming anyway.She can't be held accountable for an entire class of freshmen students who had poor academic performance from the jump."
It has everything to do with the students who were coming anyway, because many of them were told there would be no promise of financial aid, so they took their high GPAs and high SATs and went elsewhere. They were then replaced by Castell's hapless recruits, who's poor performance has dragged down the averages for the whole class!
If a CEO of a major company has a boat load of incompetent entry level employees, do you think the investors at the board meeting blame the entry level employees for accepting the job offers? Or do they fire the CEO and get someone who is competent understands building/recruiting a qualified workforce able to do entry level work?
ReplyDeleteWe have talked alot about SAT scores. Nowhere have we debated the impact of the change in the SAT test and scoring. Maybe these are some of the same students (with the exception of the scholars) that have always come to FAMU. Do we know the impact of the change in the SAT on grading of these test? Do we know if more AAs are getting lower scores than before? Are students being adequately prepared for this new test. There is a component for essay writing on the new SAT. What impact is that having?
ReplyDeleteWe aren't talking about the students with the high GPAs, who took their gpa's some place else. The academically challenged students were coming anyway; they weren't promised anything in the first place other than a financial aid/loan packet. The high scholars were promised more and when the interim president did not deliver, they took their crendentials elsewhere, and the students with the lesser gpa's stayed. Where else were they going? The administration didn't care about those students anyway. They weren't going to make the university shine and prosper and harken back to the Fred Humphries days. They were just theree: invisible souls, trying to do they best they could. FAMU aepted them, bad grades and low SAT scores and all.
ReplyDelete