Stephen Craig Robinson and Na’im Akbar (pictured) recently announced their resignations from the Anti-Hazing Committee appointed by the FAMU Board of Trustees. Both submitted letters of resignation that faulted the board for its unprofessionalism and indecisiveness.Back on March 23, FAMU trustees approved the committee’s request to change its mission from policy recommendation to a fact-finding. The vote permitted the committee to operate without the public notice requirements of Florida’s Sunshine Law. Committee members asked for the change in order to help them work more quickly and meet the board’s deadline for its report.
The board jumped to reverse its decision on March 30 after Gov. Rick Scott and his go-to trustee at FAMU, Rufus Montgomery, bashed the integrity of the committee members. Scott and Rufus both suggested that the committee was trying to operate in secret due to some sort of ulterior motive.
"The vacillations and political meanderings inhibiting our free exchange of information with each other have proven to be as complex as the problem that we were assigned to consider," Akbar wrote.
Robinson said he was offended very personal attacks that preceded the board’s vote to reverse its decision.
"To be accused of ugly motivations in a public forum and in such a fashion was churlish to say the least," Robinson said.
Montgomery compared Robinson to a child during the board’s March 30 conference call. Robinson says that Montgomery’s antics were "ill conceived, uninformed and rude."
Akbar feared that the Anti-Hazing Committee was being set up for failure.
"The time restraints further imbued the assignment with toxic implications that we would be the sacrificial lambs in this complex public relations nightmare," he said.