Photo: Rosalind Fuse-HallTop Florida A&M University administrators said Monday they have made giant leaps in 60 days toward fixing the financial mismanagement problems left over from the Castell Bryant administration, but skeptical lawmakers warned that the university's ''credibility account'' has been tapped out.
''We have rolled up our sleeves and we've gotten to work,'' Rosalind Fuse-Hall, chief of staff to FAMU President James Ammons, told the Joint Legislative Auditing Committee. ''We stand ready for all the visits that are coming by outside groups.''
Fuse-Hall and Teresa Hardee, the interim chief financial officer and vice president of fiscal affairs, said the new management team has worked 10-hour days, seven-day weeks to fix things. Sen. Al Lawson, D-Tallahassee, who is not a member of the committee, said past mismanagement ''put us in a very embarrassing situation'' but that ''I feel confident that this group'' is getting FAMU on track.
Sen. Ronda Storms, R-Valrico, addressing the FAMU administrators, said the current reforms must work.
''In looking at all the accounts, perhaps the account you haven't addressed is your credibility account. You may have five bucks in that account; I'd say it's at zero balance. And so if there are any mistakes whatsoever, you're going to have insufficient funds. You have no room for error.''
Fuse-Hall replied that ''we understand where we stand with the credibility issue."
As a FAMUAN I feel we must defend and not let the Republican members of the committee continue to attack FAMU in the manner in which they have and still continue to do. Furthermore, if it were not for the unqualified "leadership" that Jeb put into place and the Repbulican controlled legislature approved FAMU would not be in the situation that it WAS in under the last incompentent "leadership" that was an interim for two years! I will remember when it is time to vote will the rest of FAMU NATION?
ReplyDeleteYeah, the Rattler Nation needs to let these elected officials know we will not tolerate this demeaning, disrespectful discourse.
ReplyDelete'L, Ammons' administration is definitely trying to set the ship back on course without creating a negative environment.
If "Screamin Rhonda" is so into credibility, how about leading an investigation into the work conducted by KPMG and the millions of dollars they were paid for doing absolutely nothing.
And check out why George Allen made that motion to pay Castell $85K for a bunch of lies. And while you are looking into that, can you check the records and confirm if Allen ever represented Castell as her attorney?
If so, wouldn't that be a conflict of interest when Allen negotiated Castell's salary packet and supervised her as a past board member?
Rhonda, do you think you can handle looking into these concerns? Being that KPMG is in Tampa and you are in Brandon.
The Rattler Nation would really appreciate you screamin up that tree.
Yeah, FAMU looks like it's on track, but we'll have to see. All I know is, FAMU is like that black girl in LA that dropped that birthday cake and was subsequently arrested by the school cops. "Don't drop that shit!".
ReplyDeleteWe'll see how long this progress report last. I'm sure the auditors will tear sh*t a part and find that things were misrepresented. Stay tuned for the FAMU saga to continue!
ReplyDeleteCan we please get beyond Castell Bryant? Ammons don't wanna go back to the '90s when this all started. As he's said time and time again let's not talk about when it started, let's just get on with cleaning up the mess now!
ReplyDeleteWe had 25 years of clean audits, up until Gainous. Things got progressively worse under Cast-hell and you want to talk about the MF 90s? Castell makes the 90s look like the got dam good ole days!
ReplyDeleteKeep up the good work, Dr. Ammons. The Seminoles who wanted to use Castell's financial mess as an excuse to muscle the E-School away from FAMU are getting frustrated.
ReplyDeleteFSU supporters are still openly plotting to take the E-School away from FAMU. Many don't like the fact that FAMU's financial picture is making a turn for the better.
ReplyDeletehttp://floridastate.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?fid=1085&tid=102127694&mid=102127694&sid=1061&style=2
who (or what) is "screaming rhonda"?
ReplyDeletei checked out the link. fsu supporters commenting on this site don't want to take over anything. they want to separate the schools. why would you say that?
ReplyDeletewhy should famu not have our own school? we have different missions. we educate black people. this is our priority.
Can someone please explain the issue the duplication programs for state universities within an X mile radius of each other? ie Pharmacy, Law, etc...
ReplyDeleteThanks in advance !
I'm sure the FSU folks are crapping bricks because Dr. Ammons is making things right again. I keep him and our beloved alma mater in my prayers.
FSU does not care. Why are we so worried about FSU?
ReplyDeleteWe should be worried about our poor graduation rate. The state is going to start rewarding retention and graduation rates instead of numbers. We are in hot water when this happens.
FAMU's six-year graduation is 41.4%.
ReplyDeleteMost of Florida's public universities have six-year graduation rates that are below 50%. FAMU is no exception.
The quote below comes from "Region trails in college graduation rates," by Scott Travis, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, February 13, 2007:
"As a statewide system, the graduation rate for Florida's public universities compares favorably with the nation's. About 63 percent of students finish in six years, compared with about 53 percent nationally. But seven of the 10 largest public universities in the state have six-year graduation rates below 50 percent."
Yes, FAMU's six-year graduation rate is in the 40s just like most of Florida's public universities. FAMU should not be singled out when there are six other state universities that have six-year graduation rates that are also in the 40s.
FSU does care. Splitting the E-School and duplicating FAMU's J-School are the biggest topics of discussion everyday in warchant.com.
ReplyDeleteI think we should have our own engineering school. We do not need FSU. We have our own law school why not engineering. Who cares if FSU wants to get a j school.
ReplyDeleteWe need to get our graduation rate up. 41 percent is an embarrassment.
I think we should have our own engineering school. We do not need FSU. We have our own law school why not engineering. Who cares if FSU wants to get a j school.
ReplyDeleteYou are not a FAMUan. You're just an FSU supporter in disguise who's spitting out the same party line that's standard on warchant.com.
FAMU currently gets what it needs out of the current E-School arrangement. If FSU wants its own E-School then it can go to the state legislature and request one. However, FAMU is not budging and FSU is not going to walk off with any part of the current E-School. Either honor the agreement to share the E-School or build another one from scratch on your own.
Both the E-School and J-School were parts of Florida's settlement with the federal Office of Civil Rights. If FSU wants to duplicate either program, then it must prove to that office that it can do so without adversely impacting FAMU.
We need to get our graduation rate up. 41 percent is an embarrassment.
ReplyDeleteFAMU's six-year graduation is not an embarassment because most of Florida's public universities are in the same range. 7 of the 10 public universities in Florida have six-year graduation rates that are below 50%.
Why do we want to share with FSU? What are we worried about if we split?
ReplyDeleteHow can FSU adversely impact FAMU if we provide a quality education?
And how dare you say I am not a FAMUan. I love and care about this univeristy and if we provide the quality education that we are capable of we need not worry about FSU. We both have business schools, we both have nursing schools. There are plenty of other programs that are already duplicated. Why not have our own E School on campus?
Quit worrying about FSU and worry about FAMU!
And how dare you say I am not a FAMUan. I love and care about this univeristy and if we provide the quality education that we are capable of we need not worry about FSU.
ReplyDeleteI still don't believe you're a FAMUan. If you were, then there's no way you'd be singling FAMU out and accusing the university of having an "embarassing" graduation rate when most public universities are in the same range.
We both have business schools, we both have nursing schools. There are plenty of other programs that are already duplicated. Why not have our own E School on campus?
Nursing and Business are both professional schools. The Florida legislature is not going to fund two full mission research E-Schools with the same Ph.D. degrees in the same city. That's why FAMU and FSU ended up having to share one.
If the E-School splits, then one university would inevitably end up with the Ph.D. programs and the other would end up with an undergraduate-only program. There's no way the Pappas Plan-supporting BOG would let FAMU keep those E-School doctorate programs if the school split.
Quit worrying about FSU and worry about FAMU!
FSU stole FAMU's law school and tried to muscle FAMU out of the E-School. If you're not worried about FSU's plans for FAMU then you have learned absolutely nothing from history or current events.