In the least surprising news of the day, the editorial board
of the Tampa Bay Times (formerly the St. Petersburg Times) called for the departure of FAMU President James H. Ammons while praising the “good ole days” of
former Interim President Castell Bryant.
The only shocking thing about the editorial is that the
Times board doesn’t seem to remember that it’s made its intense dislike of
Ammons obvious ever since he was appointed in 2007. The Times editorial board
had a borderline hatred of former FAMU President Frederick S. Humphries and
wasn’t happy when Ammons, the former provost and vice-president for academic
affairs of the Humphries years, became the tenth president of the university.
The Times editorial board used Castell as its example of a
model FAMU leader while bashing Ammons. “As interim FAMU president in 2005,
Castell Bryant tried to ensure only FAMU students played in the band,” it wrote.
The editorial board still won’t acknowledge that Castell almost
destroyed the Marching 100 by nearly destroying FAMU. It refuses to criticize
her for getting the worse audits in school history and nearly costing FAMU its
accreditation. Come to think of it, the Times editorial still hasn’t taken Gov.
Rick Scott to task for threatening FAMU’s accreditation, either.
Ammons hasn’t lost the support of the Tampa Bay Times
editorial board. He never had its support in the first place.