In an email to trustees, Board Chair Challis Lowe warned trustees that if presidential candidates met with stakeholder groups not authorized by the search committee the process could be restarted. Mrs. Lowe's email was in response to an email she received from Andrew Lawyer indicating that Florida region alumni intended to meet in Orlando to plan strategies to rally behind one of the candidates.
Mrs. Lowes' email is as follows:
-----------------------------------
From: Challis Lowe [mailto:clowe@dollargeneral.com]
Sent: Thu 1/4/2007 7:46 PM
To: Kimberlee D. Borland
Subject: FAMU Presidential Selection Process
Kimberlee,
Will you please send the message below, along with the attachment, to the members of the Board of Trustees? Thanks.
To: Members of the FAMU Board of Trustees
From: Challis Lowe, Chairperson
This memo is being sent so that you are aware of the impending meeting described in the attached e-mail. Please be mindful of the fact that the proposed meeting is not in accordance with the process approved by the Board of Trustees to secure stakeholder input.
As you can see from the schedule you received earlier today regarding activities for January 16th thru 18th, the Search Committee has been very diligent in defining a process that is thorough and inclusive and that seeks input from stakeholders in a structured manner. Meetings with alumni representatives have been scheduled so that this stakeholder group will have an opportunity to meet and get to know each candidate. It is my hope and my expectation that these meetings will be used for the purpose for which they were intended.
I will do everything that I can to ensure that our presidential selection process is not violated; I seek your assistance and support in doing the same.
We've come too far and worked too hard to have to re-start this search process! I look forward to receiving the input from the stakeholder meetings on the 16th thru 18th and to our board meeting on February 1st where we will have the opportunity to evaluate the candidates ourselves.
As I quoted to you at our last board meeting, from the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges' publication on Effective Trusteeship, the ultimate test of a board's effectiveness is its ability to attract and keep a strong, competent president or chancellor. I hope you all join me in a desire to demonstrate our effectiveness!
Happy New Year!
Lowe warns trustees that search could be restarted
January 17, 2007
30
Crist just needs to get rid of her
ReplyDeleteActually, as we learned in Dr. Clark's Cybernetics class...
ReplyDelete...Even a stopped watch is right twice a day.
It is improper boardering along ethical lines for the alumni to surround itself and call a meeting
to endorse a canidiate before even the final interviews, if that is the case, why would any suitable canidiate choose to be a part of a supposed democratic process.
Naw folks, the "Devil who wears Prada" nailed this one right on the head.
Gotta give her credit where it is due.
Meanwhile, we as an alumni association has to be "smarter" in our approach and stop with all these "ghetto-type" shenanigans.
If you are going to fight a fight, have a plan and a clue.
There you have it Junie babe, Rufus and Chuckie duckie at it again.
ReplyDeleteIn everyday politics, people endorse folks as soon as they announce their candidacy. What is the difference other than the fact that Castell, Lowe, and a small group of alumni have decided to get behind a particular candidate (Thompson)and the majority of the alumni were not down with the plan.
ReplyDeleteSo poster above me, it's basically okay for dem to participate in politics of manipulation and destruction and relegate the alumni association to just sitting on the sidelines.
Crack kills just like Lowe and CastHell. That's some mean stuff. You should leave it along.
Basically, we have the BOT saying they want full control over the process however the BOT cannot control alumni chapters. I'm not sure what Challis wanted BOT members to do. What was her goal?
ReplyDeleteThis is the original email sent out by Dr. Freddie Young
ReplyDelete********************************
From an email received from The RattlersDen Yahoogroup
TO: ALL CHAPTER PRESIDENTS AND EXECUTIVE BOARD
FROM: DR. FREDDIE YOUNG,FLORIDA REGION, VICE PRESIDENT
CALLING ALL FAMUANS, WHO LOVE FAMU AND WANT THE BEST PRESIDENT FOR FAMU!!!!!!
YOU ARE INVITATED TO ATTEND AN EMERGENCY STRATEGY MEETING
Dr. Alvin Bryant, NAA President, Coordinated by Dr. Carolyn Frazier, Political Action Chair, and Hosted by the Greater Orlando Chapter, Ms Felechia Thompson, President have called an emergency meeting on January 6, 2007, 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM, at the FAMU LAW SCHOOL, Orlando, Florida. This meeting has been called to strategize and organize to rally support for Dr. James H. Ammons as Florida A&M University next President.
As you may know, we are now down to the last 3 candidates for President. We want to assure that the best candidate of FAMU is selected. This will be a structured meeting to accomplish that goal.
All chapters are asked to attend the meeting or send a representative, if you can. Your cooperation and participation are encouraged. You will also have the opportunity to tour our beautiful Law School.
Keep the light shining for Our Great University, FAMU!
In her e-mail to board members, Lowe says: “Please be mindful of the fact that the proposed meeting (Orlando meeting) is not in accordance with the process approved by the Board of Trustees to secure stakeholder input. As you can see from the schedule you received earlier today regarding activities for January 16th thru 18th, the Search Committee has been very diligent in defining a process that is thorough and inclusive and that seeks input from stakeholders in a structured manner. Meetings with alumni representatives have been scheduled so that this stakeholder group will have an opportunity to meet and get to know each candidate.”
ReplyDeleteLowe is clearly threatening board members with “re-starting the search process“, if they are influenced by the FAMU NAA and any other stakeholders who support Ammons.
Do you think Lowe would have sent such a letter to board members, if stakeholders were supporting other candidates? Why would meetings by stakeholders be a cause to “restart the process?” This letter should be an insult to board members! Lowe’s letter is asinine.
Can someone please explain why Andrew Lawyer altered Freddie Young's email and sent it to Lowe followed by a phone call? Was he trying to start some chet between the NAA and the BOT?
ReplyDeleteWhatever he told Lowe got Lowe's drawers in a bunch, then a series of phones calls to certain alumni. Then Lowe sent this EMAIL to the BOT.
BTW, Dr. F. S. Humphries was out of the country when this meeting took place and had no knowledge of his name circulating as a guest appearance.
*********************************
--- On Sat 12/23, Andrew Lawyer, II < alawyer@alrsi.com > wrote:
From: Andrew Lawyer, II [mailto: alawyer@alrsi.com]
To: alawyer@alrsi.com
Date: Sat, 23 Dec 2006 18:01:43 -0500
Subject: FW: NEW FAMU PRESIDENT SUPPORT MEETING
________________________________________
Sent: Thursday, December 21, 2006 12:45 AM
To: alawyer@airsi.com; alawyer@alrsi.com
Cc: Drfyng7@aol.com
Subject: Fwd: NEW FAMU PRESIDENT SUPPORT MEETING
Fyi, please forward to anyone I might have missed.
Thanks,
FY
> --- Begin Attached Message--- TO: ALL CHAPTER PRESIDENTS AND EXECUTIVE BOARD
FROM: DR. FREDDIE YOUNG,FLORIDA REGION, VICE PRESIDENT
CALLING ALL FAMUANS, WHO LOVE FAMU AND WANT THE BEST PRESIDENT FOR FAMU!!!!!!
YOU ARE INVITATED TO ATTEND AN EMERGENCY STRATEGY MEETING
Dr. Alvin Bryant, NAA President, Coordinated by Dr. Carolyn Frazier, Political Action Chair, and Hosted by the Greater Orlando Chapter, Ms Felechia Thompson, President have called an emergency meeting on January 6, 2007, 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM, at the FAMU LAW SCHOOL, Orlando, Florida. This meeting has been called to strategize and organize to rally support for Dr. James H. Ammons as Florida A&M University next President.
As you may know, we are now down to the last 3 candidates for President. We want to assure that the best candidate of FAMU is selected. This will be a structured meeting to accomplish that goal.
All chapters are asked to attend the meeting or send a representative, if you can. Your cooperation and participation are encouraged. You will also have the opportunity to tour our beautiful Law School.
Keep the light shining for Our Great University, FAMU!
*Special Guest: Dr. F. Humphries
What is going on here? This memo does not contain any kind of threat. It does contain, what appears to be, a sincere desire to NOT have the process derailed. What is the anonymous poster at 5:28 AM talking about? Is this person a college graduate? He/she certainly cannot write; he/she does not know basic subject-verb agreement: "We as an alumni association HAS...?"
ReplyDeleteThe poster at 8:01 AM writes like someone in elementary school: "There you have it Junie babe, Rufus and Chuckie duckie at it again." What does this baby-talk mean? I do hope this person is not a FAMU graduate.
It is a shame that such a big deal was made yesterday, about the appearance of evidence that the BOT Chair was threatening to derail the selection process, in today's Rattler Nation, only to discover a perfectly harmless memo that has been intentionally misinterpreted to alarm people. Shame on all of you, who seem to love discord, confusion, and anger among FAMUans.
I could be wrong about intent, however. Based upon the few posts preceding; these are just probably people too ignorant to understand what the memo does actually say.
Again, I do hope these are NOT FAMU graduates, but some elementary and/or middle school students who stumbled upon the Blog, and decided to make comments. These just could NOT be the writings of college graduates!
1/17/2007 11:14 AM said:
ReplyDeleteI could be wrong about intent...
Pretty much.
Understand something people- The FAMUNAA, or any other DSO can schedule a strategy meeting to endorse or oppose any person, place, or thing. The only result is that they make their collective view known.That in no way effect the process unless a member of the (voting) body who's directly involved in the selection (voting) process is directly present or directly participates in that meeting. Nobody is holding anybody's hand, nor holding a gun to their heads making them vote one way or the other. Y'all (you know who you are) need to STOP grasping at straws. It a loser's play.
ReplyDeleteThank you! Exactly the point and on target.
ReplyDelete^^^Ditto
ReplyDeleteHow dare Lowe or anyone for that matter tell us (NAA) who we can or cannot support and when, where, and why we should meet?!?!?!
ReplyDeleteSo lemme get this straight.
ReplyDeleteBoth Lowe and the FAMU NAA are dead ass wrong.
Wees sum bakwards arse kneegrows
The poster at 8:01 AM writes like someone in elementary school: "There you have it Junie babe, Rufus and Chuckie duckie at it again." What does this baby-talk mean? I do hope this person is not a FAMU graduate.
ReplyDeleteKeep it up everyone. You're getting under their skin. Let's run conniving bootlickers like Rufus Little and Vincent June out of this university! They've been working to the detriment of FAMU ever since they first stepped onto our campus.
Hey Rufus, have you found that $8M surplus yet?
Vincent, have you found a backbone?
Chuckie, have you found a shred of professional comptence?
What is going on here? This memo does not contain any kind of threat. It does contain, what appears to be, a sincere desire to NOT have the process derailed.
ReplyDeleteIf you can't see the clear threat that was stated in that email, then you have a severe reading comprehension disability.
You, a person who can't understand something as simple as what Lowe stated, are in dire need of a remedial reading class.
Lowe's message is clear to everyone but those who need Hooked on Phonics.
Is the phonics or Ebonics?
ReplyDeleteIt's a wonder anybody would even want to come to the damn school under the tyranny of this board, but specifically Challis Lowe's outrageous tactics and behavior. Hell, we ought to count our lucky damn stars that people even applied. The woman & CVB are crazy as hell. If I were an applicant, I'd keep my arse home. It sure as hell would be safer.
ReplyDelete11:14, you've got your nerve chastising folks regarding their writing skills, when I've spotted all kinds of grammatical misconstructions in every other line of your post. Before you start criticizing how posters write, I think you need to check your own skills. Sounds to me like you've not gone past basic, high school grammar yourself. You've got fragments (as indicated by the semi-colon), commas where they are not needed (because of the last series in an item preceded by a coordinating conjunction and you've got a problem regarding the apposition (writing separated by two commas in explanation of the subject is clarifies). So, dear, before you get all in a snit about what someone is (or is not doing), go grab a basic grammar text and read it. People make mistakes on these posts. It is not because they don't know any better; it's simply because they just want to get the commentary out there. (See how I've used that semi-colon up there? A semi-colon serves the same purpose as a period, but if the idea is short and parallel to the previous statement, the semi-colon can be used instead of the period. The statement still will have a subject and verb, and both will agree. Check out your own atrocious writing. Holla.
ReplyDelete1/17/2007 5:35 PM
ReplyDeleteWow! You sound like one of my FAMU English professors. Those women sure marked up my papers in red ink. Nonetheless, those humbling experiences helped me in the long run.
Now, I bet no one else on this blog will try to throw stones of grammar criticism from inside a glass house. Who else here wants to take on the FAMU English Department? Step up and get shot down!
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteSo lemme get this straight.
Both Lowe and the FAMU NAA are dead ass wrong.
Wees sum bakwards arse kneegrows
1/17/2007 2:54 PM
To the poster of the message referenced above:
You're probably not an Alumnus of this great university or if you are, not a financial alum so shut the hewl up.
Now, if you were in attendence at that meeting in Orlando, I'm sure most of you were not, ALL THREE candidates were discussed. NO particular candidate was endorsed by the NAA at that meeting.
Become more active in what goes on at my school before you start taking shit here about the FAMUNAA and what we choose to do behind closed doors.
By the way NAA dues is $35. I'm sure most of you who talk so much trash about FAMU didn't know that...
Vincent June has absolutely no sense of integrity. All he cares about is his own job. He just blindly does anything and everything that Castell tells him to do.
ReplyDeleteThe worst kept secret on campus is that June has been told that Thelma Thompson will permit him to stay on in his current job. It's said that the price of this underhanded deal is that he has start slinging mud against James Ammons.
June knows that if a strong president is hired, he has no chance of keeping his job. He wasn't even qualified for a vice-presidential position at FAMU in the first place. June knows that if he's kicked to the curb, no one will hire him to similar position making the same type of money he's getting from FAMU.
Seems to me like Challis and Co. are trying to divert the focus away from the fact that she is already callin the interior designers to redecorate the office of the President for Thompson.
ReplyDeleteSomebody needs to do something quick...to put a stop to that sleepy eyed looking fool...once and for all. She doesnt give a damn about FAMU and that's what hurt the most. She makes me spit...
Fortunately, the Board of Governors must approve the FAMU BOT recommendation. So if these fools pick Thelma Thomas, the BOG could reject it.
ReplyDeleteSo if these fools pick Thelma Thomas, the BOG could reject it.
ReplyDelete1/18/2007 1:00 PM
Don't bet on it.
Please.
ReplyDeleteLowe's memo was about a Prez Candidate MEETING with the NAA in Jamlando. The Alums are meeting with each other, not with Ammons or any other finalist.
The NAA's preemptive email and meeting supporting Ammons may be a bit premature and idiot politics, but it doesn't throw off the real selection process at all. Lowe's got nothin.
Ammons Ammons he's are man, if he can't do it, send your child to NCCU.
Hell! It's time for Challis Lowe to go, too. Corbin, Cast-Hell, Challis and the whole crew...get outta here!!!! All this mess FAMU has endured since Corbin got his hands on things.
ReplyDeleteTime to put FAMU back on track...so we're taking the A-Train!
I had no idea that Andrew Lawyer would stoop so low, and be so slimy, as to alter an email in order to discredit someone or a group- JUST to promote someone else's wicked self-serving agenda. This smacks of criminal leanings, and I wouldn't/won't have anything more to do with him.
ReplyDelete"When the dark clouds gather on the horizon..."
ReplyDelete