Fact-checking doesn’t seem to fit into Miami New Times reporter Gus Garcia-Roberts’ idea of “journalism.”Garcia-Roberts (pictured) recently made the completely false claim that FAMU “suffered loss of accreditations.”
In an article on Florida Memorial University’s presidential search, Garcia-Roberts writes: “Florida A&M University pharmacology professor Henry Lewis III — a former interim president who is our gambler’s pick to get the post — is trying to escape a school that has suffered loss of accreditations and high administrative turnover in the past several years.”
Garcia-Roberts’ cluelessness is shocking. If he bothered to read a few of the articles written by Florida’s better-trained news reporters, he would know that FAMU never lost its accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools or any other accrediting body.
If Garcia-Roberts did a little research, he would also know that the “high administrative turnover [at FAMU] in the past several years” was the result of bad Board of Trustees members and administrators who were protected by the Florida Board of Governors. It took a long fight for FAMU's supporters to run incompetent BOG favorites like Castell Bryant out of town.
Lewis was part of the team that cleaned up the Bryant/BOG mess. During her stay as interim president, Bryant took away 18 faculty and staff positions that FAMU’s College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences needed and failed to spend the funds for the Phase II building. Those problems resulted in FAMU pharmacy being placed on probation with the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE).
New President James Ammons brought Lewis back on board as pharmacy dean in 2007 to save the school. Lewis successfully guided FAMU pharmacy back to good standing with ACPE less than a year later.
If Lewis does get the Florida Memorial presidency, he should immediately provide some remedial newswriting methods courses in the Miami-area for factually-challenged reporters like Garcia-Roberts.
Email Garcia-Roberts here and let him know what you think of his "reporting." You can also reach his boss, Editor Chuck Strouse, here.
UPDATE: Gus Garcia-Roberts addressed Rattler Nation's criticism on the Miami New Times Riptide blog, today. His post does not include an apology or even a straight-forward retraction of his 100 percent untrue claim that FAMU “suffered loss of accreditations.”