The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) already told FAMU’s Board of Trustees in December that if they let Gov. Rick Scott boss them around, the university could lose its accreditation. That warning should have been enough. But obviously it wasn’t.On Tuesday, Scott started strong-arming FAMU’s board to reverse its vote to let the newly-formed Anti-Hazing Committee meet in private. FAMU Chairman Solomon L. Badger, III has now scheduled a special board meeting to consider the governor’s request this afternoon.
"It is my hope that the Board of Trustees reconsiders its decision and reverses it,” Scott said in a letter to FAMU’s trustees.
SACS Comprehensive Standard 3.2.4 states that each member institution’s governing board must be “free from undue influence from political, religious, or other external bodies and [protect] the institution from such influence.”
SACS previously scolded Scott for trying to pressure FAMU trustees to suspend President James H. Ammons.
“Should the Board decide to suspend the President that is well within their role as members of the governing board,” SACS President Belle S. Wheelan said in a letter to Scott on December 16. “If, however, they do so at your direction, they will jeopardize the accreditation of the University as well as its ability to provide federal aid to their students.”
But that warning hasn’t stopped Scott from trying to push FAMU’s trustees around, again.
In his March 27 letter, the governor claimed that his major concern was making sure that FAMU Anti-Hazing Committee complies with the Government-in-the-Sunshine Law. The law requires policy-making bodies such as boards of trustees at state universities to conduct their business at meetings that are open to the public.
"Who will monitor whether the members are toggling between fact-finding and possible policy and procedural changes that would make such a meeting subject to Florida's Sunshine Laws?" Scott wrote.
FAMU has already explained that the Anti-Hazing Committee has no power to approve any policy or procedural changes. None of the committee members are FAMU trustees.
Scott is not a judge. He is not the Florida attorney general, either. If he thinks that the closed meetings of FAMU Anti-Hazing Committee will violate the Sunshine Law, he should ask for a legal interpretation from a Florida court or the Florida attorney general.
Until Scott is able to present that type of legal opinion to the FAMU Board of Trustees, he is trying to get them to change their previous decision for no reason other than his personal preference. That puts FAMU in danger with SACS.
Back when Scott asked the board to suspend Ammons, Badger convened a special meeting to address the governor’s concern. He began the meeting with a statement that said: “We will stand firm against outside influence no matter how well intended.”
FAMU trustees are not standing “firm against outside influence” by scheduling a special meeting every time the Florida governor says “jump!” Badger should not have called a special meeting until the governor provided PROOF that the Anti-Hazing Committee could not legally meet in private.
SACS cannot punish the Florida governor. But it can and will punish FAMU if it the university trustees violate Comprehensive Standard 3.2.4. The trustees who are too scared to uphold Comprehensive Standard 3.2.4 should all resign before they cost FAMU its accreditation.