Frederick S. Humphries, FAMU's 8th president, who presided over years of dramatic growth in the university's physical plant, student enrollment, and student achievement, will be the guest speaker at the Honors Convocation Thursday in Lee Hall Auditorium. Humphries's 16.5 year tenure as president was capped by the University being recognized as "College of the Year" by Time Magazine.
Humphries to speak at convocation Thursday
March 26, 2007
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Frederick S. Humphries, FAMU's 8th president, who presided over years of dramatic growth in the university's physical plant, student enrollment, and student achievement, will be the guest speaker at the Honors Convocation Thursday in Lee Hall Auditorium. Humphries's 16.5 year tenure as president was capped by the University being recognized as "College of the Year" by Time Magazine.
message to the author of this blog, and the HBCU blog.
ReplyDeleteplease read this article. IT is newsworthy for the HBCU blog
http://scstate.blogspot.com/2007/03/bnn-supports-this-movement-100-good.html
We all love(d) Dr. Humphries. He was the best.
ReplyDeleteI will be driving 4 hours to see this!
ReplyDeleteHe did a good job until the alcohol caught up with him.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 3/26/2007 5:13 pm
ReplyDeleteI must say and trust me I do not post on here with negative energy...I do not believe in negative energy you see...and therefore I would like to simply say why is it that African Americans can only have white sanctioned Heroes? Dr. Humphries did not perform any of the audits preformed on the university for SACS (SACS did that) nor financial (the State conducted those) and in 16 years we never once thought about or was there even a conversation about us losing any of our accreditation! Especially in PHARMACY! Therefore, I wonder what in the helll you are talking about his personal life for. You name one perfect man or woman! Former president Clinton was a cheat and liar and Black Folk LOVED dem da some Clinton, GW cant read or write and was a drunk and you don’t see white folk running around talking about that, and he has ran this entire country into the crapper! Dr. Humphries elevated FAMU from a small college with a big mans heart and lead it into a big college with an unbeatable spirit! A SPIRIT that would not settle for second best, which Time Magazine realized, what True African Americans knew every since the inception of OUR school, that we were not only a GREAT HBCU but a GREAT UNIVERSITY
Dr. Humphries has alot of nerve coming back to FAMU. He has harmed this institution and will not share responsibility for his part.
ReplyDeleteMayber Dr. Humphries should read this article by Bill Maxwell of the St. Pete Times
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a football player at my all-black high school in Crescent City during the early 1960s, I, like the overwhelming majority of my teammates, wanted to play for the Florida A&M University Rattlers.
Under coach Jake Gaither, FAMU always ranked among the top five black teams in the nation. The Tallahassee campus also was home to Bob Hayes, "the world's fastest human" at that time, and Althea Gibson, the first black to play at Wimbledon. In 1957, she won the singles crown and returned to New York to a ticker-tape parade as the "best woman tennis player in the world."
Most high school black band members in Florida wanted to be in FAMU's world famous "Marching 100."
Because of Jim Crow, we were legally forced to attend historically black colleges if we wanted to study in Florida. The white schools, such as the University of Florida, the University of South Florida and Florida State, would not let us near their campuses.
In addition to FAMU, we had three small private schools: Florida Memorial College in Miami, Bethune-Cookman College in Daytona Beach, my alma mater, and Edward Waters College in Jacksonville.
One of my cousins graduated from FAMU's pharmacy school, and most of my public school teachers earned their degrees there. In short, FAMU was a temple for many of the black Floridians I knew. By the way, my small size, 181 pounds, prevented me from playing football at FAMU.
Since its founding, in 1887, as the State Normal College for Colored Students, the school has been integral to the lives of Florida's black population, even to those of us who did not study there.
And now, believe me when I say that many of us are genuinely concerned about the scandalous affairs at this proud old campus. We worry about the incompetence, the arrogance, the blind glorification, the corruption, the financial mess and the cronyism that are destroying the place.
We worry even more, however, about the Florida Legislature's decades of benign neglect of FAMU - a shameful neglect that laid the groundwork for today's crises. To be brutally honest, FAMU always has been the state's "black university," both in our imagination and in real practice.
Benign neglect means that officials, most of them white, made FAMU a "special" place where the rules of governance and operation are less stringent than those at the state's other public universities.
Many alumni and current students foolishly believe just the opposite: Racially insensitive officials are singling out FAMU and are holding it to higher standards.
The other day, for example, Ashley Jones, a junior from Jacksonville, told the St. Petersburg Times: "I think that we are being stereotyped because we are a (historically black university)."
No, state officials, including our governors - afraid of appearing as racists - have heretofore turned a blind eye to FAMU's financial problems. That blind eye is an insult and a disservice to blacks whether they know it or not.
If FAMU is to survive with a modicum of respectability, we must hold it to the same high standards of excellence to which we hold our other public universities. If FAMU were historically white, former president Frederick Humphries would have been fired. Instead, he was permitted to remain on the job and retire on his own terms even after crippling financial problems surfaced.
In other words, and I repeat myself, the time has come to stop ill-serving FAMU by treating it like a ghetto, where normal management rules are suspended, where expectations are low, where talk of "quality" is more bombast than reality.
And the time has come to stop the recrimination. This logical fallacy will not save FAMU. Last week, an angry alumnus screamed at me: "White universities in Florida have the same problems. Nobody's jumping on them."
Not true, I said. No other Florida university is in FAMU's mess. Even if he were right, FAMU remains a victim of its own corrupt culture.
We need to stop the benign neglect and vigorously investigate FAMU's operations.
^^^^
ReplyDeleteAn y9u have a lot nerve opening you mouth, but you did.
Bill Maxwell is another Adam Herbert and has no room to speak of anything related to FAMU or black folks.
ReplyDeleteBCC house is just as raggedley.
By the way, my small size, 181 pounds, prevented
ReplyDeleteAnd your ignorance prevented you from being admitted.
Talk about FAMU as a great university did not exist until the administration of Dr. Federick S. Humphries. From its inception in 1887, FAMU was and remains Florida's only publically financed HBCU, and that's all it was expected to be--Until Fred Humphries. Before segregation ended, FAMU certainly had a number of distinctions: (1) the first HBCU to receive full SACS accreditation; (2) Dr. George W. Gore was the first Black person to be Vice President of NEA (the National Education Association); (3) In the early 1960s Life Magazine called the 100, "the marchingest and playingest band in America;" (4) the Rattler football team was second to none (HBCUs, since we were not allowed to play predominately white football teams); (5) In 1979, FAMU was the first national champion of the then-newly created NCAA Division I-A; (6) the FAMU School of Nursing was the first School of Nursing in the entire state of Florida. One could go on and on. However, despite all of this, FAMU was considered just a good Black state university. It was never considered "great," even among the HBCUs. The "great" appellation was given to Howard University in D.C.; Fisk; Morehouse; Spellman. They were considered great, in part, because most of their presidents had been white, and most of faculty members were white.And, most of their students were second-generation college graduates, whose mothers and fathers were college graduates and doctors and lawyers and dentists. FAMU was just NOT included in this circle of elite HBCUs until Fred Humphries' administration. Certainly, Dr. Humphries' administration was not without problems; however, if one looks at the totality of his administration's accomplishments; if one looks at the proverbial "bottom line," it was the administration of Dr. Humphries that initiated this idea that FAMU was somehow "great." Check out the history of our beloved alma mater. So, for those of you who would ignore our history and pretend that he was somehow more of a problem than a part of the solution, I respectfully and sincerely beg to defer. Without him no one would be talking about FAMU's greatness. The record indicates that for most of its history it was just a decent Black college. Nothing more. Greatness was not an appellation use to describe FAMU before Fred Humphries!
ReplyDeletedont we all love ourselves some Dr. Humphries! I love love love him! He is my favorite FAMU hero!
ReplyDeleteI made a mistake. My last sentence should read: Greatness was an appellation used to describe FAMU only after Fred Humphries.
ReplyDeleteIn the Year of 2035, when our future generations read the history of FAMU, they will realize that Dr. Frederick S. Humphries was not only president of his Alma Mater but also an outstanding National Leader in education. Those who are criticizing him on the site are not fully aware of his accomplisments and contributions on the international level. He is known around the globe for taking our FAMU to a "level of competiveness among all institutions of higher education."
ReplyDeleteto Anon @ 8:01 pm....
ReplyDeleteBRAVO! i couldn't have said it better myself ;o)!
I KNOW folks ain't quotin Bill Maxwell up in hur!
ReplyDeleteHe did a good job until the alcohol caught up with him.
ReplyDelete3/26/2007 5:13 PM
First of all the person you are referrring to was not an alcoholic. Further, more if he was, i'd take a drunk Humphries over a sobber Castell, Corbin & Lowe anyday!!!!
Bill Maxwell is Castell's girlfriend, oops boyfriend and while he was demonizing Humphries in the Times Cast-HELL was calling Humphries the axis of evil at the President House last week before FAMU Day at the Legislature.
ReplyDelete9:27 said: I KNOW folks ain't quotin Bill Maxwell up in hur!
ReplyDeleteOnly the ig'nant ones. Maxwell has an ax to grind with FAMU. He's STILL pissed because Jake didn't offer him an athletics scholarship, so he got mad and went BCC. And if that wasn't bad enough, his little band lost out on an opportunity to play in the superbowl. They were .38 hot when that announcement came down from the Prince folks. Get over it already, and stop reaching for ways to tear others down.
All roads lead to James Corbin, one the ugliest, meanest, son of witches in Rattler Country. This pile crap is so jealous of Fred Humphries he has spent 54 years trying to destroy Humphries reputation.
ReplyDeleteHumphries got the grades; the crushes from the ladies; the respect from his peers and professors; and the academic accolades that he was all that and a bag of chips, yet Corbin refuses to let go.
James it's time to find a new love. Castell believes in you, but you remind her too much of what she could never get as a student at FAMU. A respectable man with integrity.
Poor Corbin, may someone will sing your praises at your home going ceremony.
So evil no one came to see you even on your way to hell.
When James Corbin dies, FAMUans need plan a huge downtown block party like the Cuban-Americans in Miami are planning for Castro's death.
ReplyDeleteI'm surpised that Castell hasn't done anything to challenge Humphries' invitation. She must be too busy playing "scorthed earth" with FAMU's financial books. Ammons is doing the right thing by waiting to enter office only after she's submitted her broken, voodou accounting FY 2006-2007 statement to the Florida Auditor General.
the facts could slap this board in the face and you would still deny it. humphries should be ashamed of how he left famu. he needs to come out and share in the consequences.
ReplyDeleteI think his presidency was capped by a hastily retirement without explanation. Why? Because Dr. Humphries knew the cooked books were going to be brought to the public's attention. Coward!
ReplyDeleteHumphries did many great things for FAMU.
ReplyDeleteHe gets credit for bringing in a string of highly qualified students, by giving them huge scholarships and payouts. They were bought outright.
Then he doubled the enrollment by packing the school with underqualified, undermotivated, academically underprepared freshmen, many of whom then sank under the temptations of college and the lack of remedial help.
FAMU cannot both be a great university AND make up for the deficiencies in the education of thousands of black students each year -- many of those deficiencies being the fault of those students themselves for not doing their homework.
This university has to choose its mission. Either climb up to being a first class university, or stay a four-year remedial community college with a few excellent programs here and there, dragged down by the deadwood being admitted to fill space and bring in funds.
Humphries took the path of increasing the enrollment, no matter how. But because FAMU could not actually serve those underqualified students it was admitting, that approach has created a problem, as large numbers of students drop out after sophomore year, leaving us with an upperclass underenrollment, and hence under funding.
It would be really helpful if we could focus on recruiting better-qualified students of all kinds, and not stick to the community college mission of providing remedial work for kids who didn't do well in high school.
That would be a change from the Humphries mission, I believe.
There were no cooked books. FAMU received clean operational audits from the Florida Auditor General every year of Dr. Humphries' tenure (1985-2001).
ReplyDeleteHumphries also left FAMU with surpluses in athletics, E&G, and its composite cash balance.
The operational audits during Castell's two years, however, have been complete disasters.
Castell has not created any surpluses either. Instead, she created a $10M deficit.
Take those facts!
Call a spade a spade. CastHell is a liar and a cheat. James Corbin is a punk, a liar and a cheat.
ReplyDeleteDon't worry the truth always prevails .
Castell and her boy James Corbin know their days are numbered.
See what happens when you are digging a ditch for someone else Castell and James, the deeper you dig the more siht piles up and cascades down on your lying thieving, conniving heads.
ReplyDeleteGwen Margolis said it best. Mr. Auditor General was there a surplus?
ReplyDeleteMr. Auditor General - No
Gwen Margolis - but where did it go?
Mr. Auditor General - It was like puff the magic dragon, it went up in smoke.
Even if one were to believe all the naysayers have to say about Hump, at least we knew where the money was going in those days...scholarships for students and not lining the pockets of his Alpha bruhs.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThere are certainly some die-hard Rattlers on board. We all know of the good, great and wonderful things that Humphries did at (and for) the university during his sixteen-year reign. We all know as well, that three was quite a number of mismangement problems associated with his presidency. While he performed tremendous feats during his term in office, there was certainly--as in all administrations--great room for improvement. Castell Bryant inherited a number of fiscal challenges upon her acceptance of the interim presidency, but she also created more than problems than were thrust upon her. While Fred Humphries' fiscal affairs cannot be overlooked by a long shot, Castell's barrel points mostly to herself. She is the administrator, instigator and agitator of the university's place in higher education. Along with Corbin, Lowe and a number of others, they have no one to blame but themselves for this horrid turn of events that grace the papers and national media every single day.
ReplyDeleteIt is indeed, refreshing to see comments on this blog that make sense and that are grounded in facts and reality. FAMU, like African America itself, has always had the potential for greatness. I sincerely believe that despite and, inspite, of what our beloved alma mater is going through right now, the FAMU of the future---And, yes, FAMU does have a future as an autonomous, self-sufficient institution of higher education, FAMU will survive and prosper! It is simply a matter of harnessing and actualizing the tremendous potential of African Americans here in the state of Florida. We can do it! And, we will! No, the fat lady has not sung just yet! She is just warming up until the flotsam and trash have been eliminated! You can't cook a good meal in a dirty kitchen! If there are persons who have stolen money, then send them to prison! FAMU should not be held hostage for the misdeeds of a few selfish, misguided individuals, who believe that there own individual advancement and achievement is more important that the advancement and achievement of the group-- in this case African Americans! In the final analysis I believe we will be just fine. Thank you very much. Regarding some of this bull about accountability----What is accountability? Accountable to whom? The citizens of the state of Florida? Yes. But, please, please, don't forget, that Black people are also taxpaying citizens of the state of Florida too. I think sometimes we get lost when we talk about accoutability and the "citizens" of the State. Hell, Black people have been and remain taxpaying citizens too!
ReplyDeleteI did not agree with Hump's strategy of admitting underqualified students to the school to boost enrollment. I would have rather FAMU grow gradually with kick-ass scholars. A 13,000 Black school packed with 90% 3.7+ GPAs and 1100+ SATs would be the ultimate realization of the Civil rights movement.
ReplyDeleteI see Hump's strategy, which is also the strategy of most HBCUs by the way, I don't agree with it. He did many great things, but I wish he used his moxie to set up a pipeline program with the various community colleges so that they can take on the underqualified students and the ones that make it transfer up to FAMU.
Gainous hired KPGM @ $2M and he had 16 audit findings and a $5M deficit and the board FIRED him.
ReplyDeleteBryant continued the KPMG contract @ $2M and had 16 findings in 2006 and a $10.4M deficit and the board REWARDED her with a $50,000 raise and $35,000 bonus.
Then in 2007 Bryant extended the KPMG contract by $4M, and she had 35 findings (increased by a factor of 2) and 12 repeated findings in 2007 and a projected $26M deficit. Yet, the board has not done absolutely NOTHIN.
Bryant's parting words for FAMU are the university can be much better managed w/ about 8-8,500 students; a focus on undergraduate degree production (A.A., A.S., B.S.); reducing the number of signature professional programs; eliminating the PhD programs and resarch which makes it too complex of an institution.
In her parting words of advise to the lawmakers, BOG and the chancellor she has indicated that FAMU is incapable of being a large institution because it is too difficult to manage pass an enrollment of 8,000.
It's obvious that Madame President was overwhelmed and this university job was too big, but it doesn't mean that FAMU should be boxed in as a glorified community college.
Mr. Charlie Crist we need an overhaul of our board; leadership that isn't afraid of complexity; an board that can fund raise; build new programs; increase research dollars; build partnerships with business and industry; and provide competent individuals for the 21st Century workforce on the level of the Humphries' administration.
What we don't need is another board that is afraid of growth; tackling complex issues; providing policy to improve the management of the university; and so divisive and destructive that it alienates the major stakeholders as this board has done and continues to do.
Mr. Governor we need help and we needed yesterday. Please give us a board that can work with the incoming president. You can start doing this by getting rid of Lowe and Tyson; and holding Castell Bryant accountable for all the problems that happened during Castell tenure.
We expect nothing less.
Bryant's parting words for FAMU are the university can be much better managed w/ about 8-8,500 students; a focus on undergraduate degree production (A.A., A.S., B.S.); reducing the number of signature professional programs; eliminating the PhD programs and resarch which makes it too complex of an institution.
ReplyDeleteIs she implying that only 8,000 blacks should be educated, then who will pick up the rest?
In her parting words of advise to the lawmakers, BOG and the chancellor she has indicated that FAMU is incapable of being a large institution because it is too difficult to manage pass an enrollment of 8,000.
ReplyDeleteI've heard before that Castell thought FAMU would be better off with 8,000 students. Are you telling me that she actually SAID that load of nonsense before the state legislators?
That will undermine any possibility of securing state dollars for the enrollment goals that FAMU offered its legislative funding request for 2007-2008. In that, the enrollment goal was set at 13,000 for 5-years down the road.
What's going on?
Well the incoming president is about to be hit with a reduction in state appropriations due to us failing to meet the projected enrollment goals.
ReplyDeleteTherefore, by default I would say we will be right where the interim president indicated.
I was in the room when bryant gloated abot MDCC being a 70,000 student campus adn she can accomplish the job of manning a 13000 institution like FAMU. That "8000...manage" statement lacked vision or a self-esteem in the ability of FAMU. This bitch shoulda been gone long ago!
ReplyDeleteDr. Ammons we believe in you and will support you(not just at homecoming) all the way.
3/27/2007 10:11 AM said
ReplyDelete"A 13,000 Black school packed with 90% 3.7+ GPAs and 1100+ SATs would be the ultimate realization of the Civil rights movement."
NO.
IT WOULD BE THE ULTIMATE REALIZATION OF A SEGREGATIONIST SOCIETY.
Black scholars are welcome at the best schools in America. THAT, my friend, is the "ultimate realization of the Civil rights movement."
The ultimate realization of the civil rights movement is when people of all colors wish to attend FAMU because of the quality of its educational programs.
ReplyDeleteThe ultimate realization of the civil rights movement is when we are judged by the content of our curriculum rather than (held to a lower standard because of) the color of our skin.
we have a good curriculum...its just the messy "misapproapiration of funds" by rogue types we have issue with.
ReplyDeleteanony 10:02 am. I could not agree with you more. FAMU needs to be an institution of all color not just black. Single race institutions will not compete in the global market place of the 21st century.
ReplyDeletethere is still a need for HBCU's.
ReplyDeleteSome of you are liars and the truth is not in you. My freshman class, which started in the fall of 1992 was the first class to average a 3.0 and 1,000 on the SAT to be admitted to FAMU. Academic standards INCREASED while the schools population increased.
ReplyDeletethere was a need for HBCUs during segregation, but not now.
ReplyDeleteIs it not funny that Dr. Hump. abruptly retired a year before FAMU had to start turning over financial records to the State of Florida?
ReplyDeleteDr. Frederick S. Humphries is not to blame for FAMU's current financial problems.
ReplyDeleteHumphries left FAMU with:
-16 years of clean operational audit opinions from the State Auditor General's office;
-An Athletic Budget Surplus of $3M;
-An Operating Budget that was $3M cash positive;
-A Composite Cash Balance of $22M;
-A Foundation of more than $65M (after inheriting a foundation that had less than $6M);
-Nearly $90M in approved capital construction dollars;
-Over 12,000 students (after inheriting a student body that had less than 3,500).
Those are the facts. Dr. Humphries did not leave FAMU in a financial crisis.
FAMU's current financial issues go back to former board Chairman James Corbin. He pressured former President Fred Gainous to fire all the senior officers in the controller's office who had experience in preparing the financial statement and securing clean operational audit opinions.
Gainous and Castell Bryant gave big bucks to KPMG, which has turned out to be completely inept in managing the university's money.
Plus, Bryant cut the recruitment program: FAMU's largest revenue-generating unit.
It's time to stop blaming Humphries for problems he didn't create and start looking at the facts!
Why wasn't the "kleadership team" there.
ReplyDelete