Jennings’ disrespectful attitude toward FAMU faculty spans more than 11 years

This week, FAMU trustees will pass a resolution honoring Bill Jennings for the more than 11 years he sat on the board. The praise on that document won’t say anything about the real Bill Jennings that FAMU had to deal with between 2001 and 2013. The real Jennings was an individual who had enormous difficulty treating FAMU’s faculty with respect during his time on the Board of Trustees (BOT).

Back in 2001, Jennings led the Presidential Search Committee charged with finding a successor to President Frederick S. Humphries. He quickly started talking down to the FAMU professors who believed they should have voting representation on the committee.

At a town hall meeting on October 31, 2001, Jennings confirmed that that he told the Tallahassee Democrat that it would be “counter-productive” to appoint a faculty representative with full voting power to the BOT Presidential Search Committee. BOT Chairman Art Collins later selected Faculty Senate President Ada P. Burnette to serve as a voting member of the committee despite Jennings’ negative comments.

Jennings also continued to take a dismissive stand against shared governance while serving as vice-chairman of the board. When professors complained that Interim President Castell V. Bryant hired a provost and vice-president of research without any faculty input, Jennings showed no signs of caring.

There was little improvement in Jennings’ attitude toward faculty members after he was elected BOT chairman in 2007. He refused to summon Developmental Research School (DRS) Superintendent Ronald Holmes before the board to answer tough questions about what he had done to the K-12 program. Ronald’s failure to recruit enough students to satisfy the demands of the 2009-2010 year’s budget threatened nine teaching jobs before the senior administration dipped into university coffers to provided a $425,802 bailout for the school.

Many FAMUans openly wondered whether Jennings was trying to protect Ronald because his brother, R.B. Holmes, personally nominated Jennings for chairman in 2007 and 2009.

Jennings’ more than a decade on the BOT didn’t help him appreciate the central role that the faculty plays in holding the school together. Hardworking faculty members provided the biggest source of consistency at FAMU as Jennings’ actions contributed to a lack of stability in Lee Hall, with six presidencies in nearly 11 years.   

FAMU is finally rid of Jennings. But there are still numerous trustees who share his disrespectful attitude toward the professors who mentor students every day, protect the university’s critical accreditations, and bring millions of research dollars into the school. The faculty must continue to provide the leadership that trustees like Jennings won’t.