June stumbles in post-FAMU job search

Vincent G. June, FAMU’s former vice-president for student affairs, probably wants to forget about his recent job interview at Florida Atlantic University.

As part of the selection process for FAU's dean of students position, he appeared at an open Q&A forum. There, students peppered him with questions stemming from online articles posted by Rattler Nation and The FAMUan. Their concerns ranged from his treatment of housing department employees to his relationship with student government.

Dori Zinn, a staff writer for FAU’s student newspaper, had this to say about June:

I guess since June was tired of giving FAMU such a bad reputation, he found it necessary to continue his legacy here...as if FAU administration didn’t do enough of that already.

We shouldn’t be shocked that FAU is actually considering hiring June. He is, however, highly disliked among students, so of course he's the one being considered for dean of Student Affairs. Yea... I want the guy who "allegedly" fires people when they don’t listen to him to be in charge of me. Is all press really good press for FAU?

June was not hired at FAU or at the University of Tennessee-Martin, where he applied for vice-chancellor of student affairs.

While at FAMU, June joined his boss Castell Bryant in berating the recruitment model developed by former President Frederick S. Humphries.

Despite the fact that FAMU became the largest single-campus HBCU under Humphries’ leadership, June claimed that FAMU’s eight president didn’t have a solid recruitment program. According to him, the university had "just [sent] people to recruit” without any planning or direction. June's comments came a year after after Bryant had stopped recruiting altogether, causing FAMU's first enrollment drop in over a decade.

Additionally, June declared that FAMU had a diversity problem and strongly suggested that his recruitment strategy would correct it by deemphasizing the university’s historic focus on African Americans. "I look at diversity from more than just a race,” June said.

In 2007, President James Ammons relieved June of his $166,400 a year job and reaffirmed FAMU’s commitment to recruiting the best and brightest black students. The renewed recruitment efforts came just in time to help pick up the slack for declining black freshman enrollment at UF, FSU, and USF.

UPDATE (September 25, 2008): June was hired in August, 2008 as associate vice-president for student success and enrollment management at Georgia Perimeter College.