The Florida Board of Governors will convene on FAMU’s campus today and tommorow. The agenda includes a discussion on State University System budget cuts, updates on the chancellor search, and approval of the 2009-2012 Public Education Capital Outlay priority list.According to the PECO list approved last year, the bulk of FAMU’s construction money request for the next three years centers on the College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. FAMU has asked for $33,460,440 to help complete the Phase II pharmacy facility and $12,060,000 to remodel the Dyson Pharmacy Building.
Additionally, FAMU is seeking $15,000,000 for general infrastructure maintenance and $1,751,500 to finish renovating University Commons. There's also $12,060,000 on tab for a third phase of the joint College of Engineering.
On Thursday, FAMU President James Ammons and Professor Moses Kairo, director of the university’s Center of Biological Control, will present on “Bio-security challenges posed by invasive species.”
Ammons will also share findings on behalf of the statewide Task Group on Financial Aid. The panel, which Chancellor Mark Rosenberg asked Ammons to head, was charged with recommending changes to the state’s student aid and tuition policies.
Additionally, the BOG is expected to adopt a new rule requiring universities to adopt regulations that will increase textbook affordability for low-income students.
A meeting will air live here on FAMCast. The two-day schedule and meeting materials are available here.
UCF dean accused of $40,000 spending spree with university credit card
ReplyDeleteWalter Pacheco | Sentinel Staff Writer
12:31 PM EST, January 28, 2009
A University of Central Florida dean is under investigation today after auditors discovered he purchased $40,000 worth of high-end electronics for personal use with his university-issued credit card.
UCF spokesman Grant Heston said Jamal Nayfeh, the College of Engineering's associate dean, was suspended with pay after he allegedly bought a hi-definition projection system, 52-inch LCD television and a home entertainment system, among other items, in December 2007.
The electronic items were installed in his Geneva home.
University auditors found the purchase in January and alerted officials.
"We are very disturbed with the allegations, but pleased that our policies and procedures found the problem so quickly," Heston said.
University police are investigating and have not released details.
Nayfeh was hired in 1990, university records show. His annual salary as associate dean is $181,000.
Officials at the Florida Board of Governors, which manages the 11 public universities in the state, were shocked at the allegations and said it is a rare crime for a university professor to commit.
"Our university system is not rife with that kind of personality," said Florida Board of Governors spokesman Bill Edmonds. "We are very sensitive to this in state government and our universities."
Edmonds did not know the details of the allegations against Nayfeh, but said a purchase of that amount would have sounded alarms.
"A $40,000 purchase would have stopped traffic," Edmonds said. "I'm glad UCF found the problem so quickly. UCF is a very lean operation and they distinguish themselves for doing very much with every dollar."
This is the type of incident that had it happened at FAMU would be front page news all over the state.....
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