Student: Holmes brothers using FAMU as easy “meal ticket”

The shenanigans of R.B. and Ronald Holmes continue to embarrass many FAMU students. Jason Lawrence, a columnist for The FAMUan, says that the Holmes brothers should be stopped from using the Florida’s only public historically black university as an easy “meal ticket.”

From Lawrence’s opinion column:

Florida A&M president James Ammons took giant a step back in his effort to instill integrity at the university in his recent handling of Ronald Holmes.

The former superintendent of the FAMU Developmental Research School (DRS), resigned on June 30 after his contract expired. Instead of getting rid of Holmes, Ammons rewarded him with a position in the university’s College of Education, according to a university press release. While trumpeting Holmes’ accomplishments, such as increasing enrollment and designing a program to recruit and retain high achievers, the statement omitted any mention of the minimal academic gains he made while pocketing a hefty $110,000 salary.

That reads like a bad joke. Ammons is sending the message that the “old” FAMU is alive and well. Holmes’ tenure made a mockery of the university’s motto, “Excellence with caring,” considering that his hiring was clearly borne of shameless cronyism and nepotism that has haunted the institution decades before its current students were even thought of.

During his interview for the superintendent’s job, Holmes, who received his bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees from FAMU, “could not recall the title of his doctoral dissertation,” according to Thomas Jackson, former dean of the COE in a St. Petersburg Times editorial in 2008.

Prior to his job at DRS, Holmes was an assistant principal at Banneker High School in College Park, Ga., where he earned a reputation for improving student performance. However, while the students at Banneker made gains during his tenure, they still performed below the state and national average on standardized tests, according to the school’s accountability reports, which can be accessed on the Georgia Department of Education’s website.

Furthermore, as an assistant principal, Holmes had no experience in being solely responsible for a school’s performance.

Making Holmes a faculty member in the COE after his failed tenure at DRS reeks of old time, FAMU politics. Ammons can be excused for hiring Holmes the first time. After all, he had just returned and was still trying to figure just how much trouble FAMU was in. But his faculty appointment is inexcusable.

This PR blunder can only be made right if Holmes and his trustee brother are disallowed from continuing to use FAMU and its patrons as a meal ticket. Removing Ronald Holmes is a simple fix for Ammons—it’s only a matter of issuing him walking papers.

But giving the younger Holmes the boot may diminish support from the older Holmes and could stand in the way of Ammons’ plan to steer FAMU in the right direction. It is up to Ammons and FAMU’s politically-savvy supporters to ensure that those who serve the university have its best interest in mind.

Read the full column here.