For FAMUans, the bad news seems relentless.
The latest in a long string of stories about financial mismanagement at Florida A&M University came last week, after trustees learned that four computer consulting firms, which had been working without pay or a contract since January, were owed $4.3 million.
Continue reading: Accountable
If we as ALUMNI don't force these so-called leaders to straighten up, we have already lost....
ReplyDeleteWhite students drawn to black colleges
Offer of scholarships, lower tuition and new perspectives alluring
The Associated Press
Updated: 7:23 a.m. ET May 29, 2007
COLUMBIA, S.C. - Michael Roberts has done more than study finance at historically black Benedict College. He’s played football for the college, joined a fraternity and proposed to his girlfriend.
Pretty typical, except that Roberts is one of the few whites who attend one of the nation’s traditionally black colleges.
“When I tell people I attend Benedict, they comment, ’Well, you’re not black,”’ Roberts said. “But it’s still a school, I’m still getting an education. You don’t have to be black to attend.”
Officials for the nation’s historically black schools say Roberts’ experience is not that unusual. White students are being actively recruited, and attracting them has become easier for a variety of reasons, including the offer of scholarships and lower tuitions than those paid at non-black schools.
Private, historically black schools cost an average of $10,000 less per year than their traditionally white counterparts, according to the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education.
'Increasingly black and brown world'
The head of the association says lower costs are not the only thing the schools have to offer. Whites who attend the schools are preparing for an “increasingly black and brown world,” said Lezli Baskerville, the association’s president and CEO.
“If you want to know how to live in one, you can’t grow up in an all-white neighborhood, go to a predominantly white school, white cultural and social events, go to a predominantly white university and then thrive in a world that is today more black, more brown than before,” Baskerville said.
White students say they’ve taken valuable experiences from their time at black colleges. Skin color, the students say, is much more of a factor away from the campuses than it is on them.
“You should get to know people based on who they are,” Roberts said. “You can’t judge a book by its cover.”
The first of what are now called historically black colleges and universities was Cheyney University in Pennsylvania, which was founded in 1837 so that blacks — barred from attending many traditional schools — could get advanced educations. Since then, more than 100 such institutions have been established in the U.S. and about 285,000 students attend the schools each year.
Lawsuits have forced many of the schools — about half of them are public — to diversify their student bodies, Baskerville said. In the 2005-06 school year, nearly 10 percent of their students were white, according to her association’s data.
Scholarships, new programs and recruitment have attracted dozens of whites to schools such as South Carolina State University, where they account for around 4 percent of the student body, said university spokeswoman Erica Prioleau. The school has a minority affairs office for white students, similar to those found for non-white students at traditionally white schools.
A handful of whites attend Atlanta’s private Morehouse College. The school hasn’t been aggressively recruiting whites, so they make a “conscious decision” to attend, said Sterling Hudson, dean of admissions and records for the college.
Refuge where 'race doesn't really matter'
Steven Schukei did just that. The Morehouse alumnus, who now works as a vice president in technology for New York-based investment firm Goldman Sachs, said he gained a perspective that he wasn’t offered while growing up and going to school in Nebraska, Colorado and South Carolina.
“There was always this sort of disjoint between what I thought I should be learning and what I actually did learn,” said Schukei, 30. “And I thought Morehouse would be an opportunity to expand my horizons and to see a different perspective on the world that we live in.”
Schukei remembers Morehouse as a “refuge from the rest of the world where what race you are doesn’t really matter.”
“Conversations that people typically wouldn’t feel comfortable having about race can happen on Morehouse’s campus where they just wouldn’t happen anyplace else,” he said.
© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18914514/
Strange that PWI's don't have to account for much here.
ReplyDeleteThis article in the Dixierat is another example of White America pulling the wool over the eyes of Black America. In this article "we" are told gone are the days of circling the wagon and then in the same line we are told about how that is exactly what has saved the University until this very day. So what if one racist Gov. Bush devised a plan better than all of his racist predecessors put together to destroy FAMU, the unaccountable inept and ineffective Board of Trustees. The last thing we as a people should be doing is listing to anyone who works for or writes for the Dixierat! Let’s look at it, the Indians did not circle the wagons and now they live on reservations and are reduced to being a damn horse riding mascot for a school that bears the once proud Seminole name as a damn nickname! The Africans did not circle the wagons and the world’s richest continent, in natural resources is the poorest continent on EARTH! Everywhere and every time the white man has shown up with their Gotdamn religion, political views, and people who ever allowed them in were in return wiped out or reduced to slaves, reservations, or extinction! So if FAMU does not continue circling the wagons we will in turn hasten our very on demise not only quicker but also as a willing participant! The article is not even correct the BOT was instituted by order of the Governor and the Board of Governors was introduced by constitutional amendment by the voters in 2002 as a direct reaction to the stupid BOT action by the Governor.
ReplyDeleteThe entire article was a joke as it demonstrates a level of ignorance on the writer’s part the BOT should simply approve and or question the President and then move the agenda of the University set forth by the PAID PROFESSIONALS who have experience and qualifications in running a University! They should not be involved anymore than that as they are not qualified to do so! No one is automatically qualified because they kiss the backside of the Governor in the form of campaign donations and or party affliction, or know Senators and are appointed to a Board!
African Americans are the only "minority" group where the majority of people did not learn from their enslaved ancestors. We have stepped so far back that we can't even see the writing on the wall. All the crutches of welfare and other "alleged" assistance is quickly being pulled with the knowedge that most have not learned to stand on their own two feet. Education and knowledge can lift most out of an oppressive life that is why roadblocks to education is one of the most effective tool of racists. Look at FAMU Law School. When they authorized the school, they pulled the scholarship for minority students to law school. We have never been GIVEN anything for free. Anything that looks free has a sinister purpose. That purpose is usually to keep us from seeing the big picture. If FAMU officials do not get the BIG PICTURE real soon, we will all see what can happen when we forget and align ourselves with the wrong forces. Beware of wolves in sheep's clothing.
ReplyDeleteThere are no wolves in sheep's clothing. Everything (and everybody) is in plain view. We simply need to be more critically vigilant, astute and observant.
ReplyDeleteIf ANYONE needs to be held accountible ...
ReplyDeleteIt should be these consultants accounting for just WTF have they been doing since January to even warrant being paid $4.3M.
I wouldn't pay any of them squat until they - AND whoever contracted them - come before the BOT - AND maybe even Ronda Storms too - and explains just what have they done and/or accomplished to justify the monies they claim we owe them.
No one is being a racist. We would not be having this discussion if FAMU could attract a competent management team. Hopefully Ammons is up for the mob.. uh I mean job.
ReplyDelete