Recognizing that the highly acclaimed Marching "100" band is one of the most visible symbols of the university, new FAMU President James Ammons has worked not only to help restore the band which had been a favorite whipping board and target of his immediate predecessor by reversing serveral of her determental decisions which were aimed to destroy the band. Upon arrivial at the University, Ammons met with director Julian White and provided additional scholarships and financial support to the band, including some $350,000 for new intstruments.Ammons told Leon County Alumni last night, that after seeing the band as a seventh grader he knew he wanted to be a Rattler. The 100rd has that kind of effect on people and we need to make sure that they are right, Ammons said.
Hopefully, these new instruments will be here by homecoming, Ammons added.
Also see: Castell guts 100
Castell holding up 100's Super Bowl invite
Band's Super Bowl performance translates into $41.6 M in TV exposure
Great. Those new instruments can take some time getting used to for a musician. If they are here by homecoming they probably shouldn't be in too much of a rush to play on them in public.
ReplyDeleteMaybe that's why Julian hasn't ordered them and he's had the money since late July.
ReplyDelete8:57AM
ReplyDeleteMay be you should go ask Dr. White his rationale for not ordering the instruments, as you claim, since you are on a first name basis with him. And please give the man some respect as he has given the Rattlers more than 38 years of exceptional service.
Just keep the 100rd out of hotels, cauz they the thieven type!
ReplyDeleteJust keep the 100rd out of hotels, cauz they the thieven type!
ReplyDeleteWhy don't you just stay the hell of our blog, because you're the hatred-spewing type.
everything's a priority at the university except faculty salaries.
ReplyDelete8:57 am....Get your facts straight please before you start spewing such inaccurate nonsense.
ReplyDeleteIt is all about image at FAMU, no substance. Shiney new instruments are more important than an education. Where are our raises Ammon?
ReplyDelete5:27, I hear you! I'm 4:01, and I want to know when the faculty is going to get some kind of consideration. Everybody and everything gets some kind of attention, but the faculty at the university keeps slaving away, teaching four (and sometimes five) classes, with not a thank-you, $$-wise, to be found. I like what I do, teaching at the university, that is, but every year it gets harder & harder & harder to make ends meet and stay afloat. We're always the last to get anything, except, of course, promises. We get those all the time. And most times they're empty, at that.
ReplyDeleteAmmons is a talker. He is worried about image and getting out positive spin on a negative situation. Why not take steps to acutally change the situation. Instead he takes steps to change the perception.
ReplyDeleteI really wonder where this institutions is heading?
Yeah. I guess SACS accreditation and good financial audits and community building and fundraising are just window dressing.
ReplyDeleteNot to mention that faculty and probably all state employees get raises at a particular point in the fiscal year. The fiscal year, I think, is in June.
In other words, you guys won't be talking about raises until later on next year. You KNOW this information. You are just trying to bring Ammons down.
Ammons already made his bed with Humphries. Now he wants to come back as the savior? His dirty laundry is out for everyone to see.
ReplyDeleteI love the faculty and staff at famu. They are hard workers and do need a raise. I also think that the attack on dr. ammons is somewhat miss guided. How can one get mad because he moves money from one budget to another to pay for instruments (which the 100 is the number one recuriter). I believe within the near furthure there will be an across the board raise for all employees. I also believe that this administration will be the one that divides the faculty into two groups. The ones that focus on research and writing and the ones that teach.
ReplyDeleteAnd if he doesn't rebuild that positive image for the university to bring in more students, faculty and staff won't have a reason to get raises...
ReplyDeleteWhy is it that people NEVER think of FAMU's #1 customer...the students and how our university is perceived by them so they will choose Florida A & M as their institution of higher learning.
The baddest band always needs to look go because folks are always watching and talking.
ReplyDeletego=good
ReplyDeleteI don't think employees complaining about no receiving raises are seeing the big picture.
ReplyDeleteCastell left FAMU in a multi-million dollar hole because she failed to recruit students. When she destroyed the recruitment program, FAMU did not meet its minimum FTE enrollment requirement by the state. That forced the state to execute multi-million dollar penalities against our university.
Recruitment is the key to replenishing FAMU's operating budget and getting our funding level back to where it was before Castell. That means that the band, which someone accurately noted is one of our top recruitment vehicles, must be a priority.
Once FAMU makes up for the students it lost, there will be more money for critical issues such as faculty and staff raises. However, it will not happen overnight. We all need to be realistic and recognize that FAMU will be in a budget shortage until it fully repairs its top revenue-generating program: recruitment.
FAMU's band is the university. Without the band we are nothing!
ReplyDeleteWhat, the band is a priority of the rest of the school.
ReplyDeleteIs this a university or a band?
Faculty has worked five years without a raise, now yall expect one in 100 days of Dr. A being on the job?
ReplyDeleteHe's said he's working on, give him a chance.
I agree that student recruitment should be our top priority right now. They are the life blood of the university. Once our enrollment increases then revenue for raises will increase. To those faculty members that are complaining about raises, you need to get on your knees and thank God that we still have a university...and you a job. The previous administration nearly destroyed our university. I appreciate what Dr. Ammons is trying to do. Lets not start this gloom & doom and baseless slander again. By the way, my child, who's a current FAMU student, is extremely thrilled with Dr. Ammons & his team's leadership.
ReplyDeleteWhile the statement about the band "being the university" is overblown, the key point is that FAMU's ability to effectively market itself -- and thus, rebuild our enrollment -- relies heavily on the band.
ReplyDeleteWe've got to use the band to get our enrollment numbers up so we can get back all the state dollars we lost. That's why we've got to pour more cash into the band right now. It takes money to make money.
1:49, speaking as a former band member, let's hold down that comment and keep it in perspective. Yes, next to FSU football and T Pain, we're the best known coming out of Tallahassee but there's a lot of Rattlers out there who've made their marks on the world not having anything to do with the 100.
ReplyDelete2:31 PM,
ReplyDeleteYou may want to get out and see the world a little more. What you meant to say is "next to The 100, FSU & T Pain, we're the best known coming out of Tallahassee". I'll forgive you this time.
Listen up, 9:40: No one's "trying to bring Ammons down." Can people not voice an opinion without someone crying "foul"? Most everyone is on Ammons' side, but the truth is the truth: faculty salaries are not on the man's priority list. No matter what he says. "Addressing faculty salaries" is what the man is suppose to say. Is he NOT suppose to even say such a thing? That's what presidents do---new ones anyway. So, saying something--anything--about faculty salaries is a talking loud and doing nothing rhetorical speech. This isn't rocket science. But maybe it is to you.
ReplyDelete11:42--we are seeing the "big picture." obviously you are not seeing the picture, big, small or whatever size. faculty need raises, and we are sick and & tired of promises. we like teaching at the university, but we are always shafted for other things that are more "important." we really do get the "big picture" if there is, in fact, one to be gotten.
ReplyDelete2:23, everyone's "thrilled" that Dr. Ammons' leadership, no question about that, so your child is not the only person at the university who's elated that he's the president. we all love the university and are thrilled and elated that the university is moving in a different direction, but thrills and elation don't pay the bills, honey.
ReplyDeleteI knew what I was saying. Speaking as an experienced Marching 100 member, I know fully if you put the Noles, T Pain, and the band in the same arena on different nights, they would have a better turn out than we would.
ReplyDeleteThose looked like a lot of new instruments out there last night.
ReplyDeleteThen maybe you need glasses...
ReplyDelete2:23, you sound like one of those field negroes who always thinks that a lil' bit 'o something is better than nothing. Black folk are so used to noting getting a damn thing or getting so little of a damn thing, that anything they get, whatever the size, is good. "Yessir, boss man, I'se sho grateful for these heah 'taters." Black folks have been so damn brainwashed into thinking that if they "at least" have a job, then they oughts to be happy. Damn.
ReplyDeletecorrection on my above post: "Black folk are so used to not getting a damn thing..."
ReplyDeleteDo all colleges buy instruments for the band these days?
ReplyDeleteI have never heard of this. When I was in band, the band members had to provide their own instruments.
Of course I went to a "white" college where we were expected to work to earn what we needed rather than expect a handout.
One of the common themes that I see on this board is someone wanting to be given something that they did not earn. That culture has to change if we are going to be competitive in the future.
Which means your band wasn't the Marching "100" and didn't work hard enough to earn band instruments.
ReplyDelete