Florida Legislative Black Caucus takes stand against Thrasher’s attempt to split E-College

The Florida Legislative Black Caucus, led by FAMU alumnus Alan Williams, opposes state Sen. John Thrasher’s attempt to split the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering.

Since Thrasher hasn’t proposed any new money to help FAMU hire enough faculty to run a separate engineering school, the split could lead FAMU’s engineering programs to lose their accreditation.

Williams sent an open letter to Gov. Rick Scott, Florida Senate President Don Gaetz, and Speaker Will Weatherford that asked them to remove Thrasher’s budget amendment.

Dear Senate President Gaetz and Speaker Weatherford:

It has been brought to our attention that the Senate has adopted an amendment to the General Appropriations Act that would create a second College of Engineering in Tallahassee, Florida.

Members of the Florida Legislative Black Caucus believe that the adoption of this amendment went outside of the normal process and was absent input from the public, Board of Governors, Boards of Trustees and leadership of both Florida A&M and Florida State Universities.

Proposing such an abrupt change without any discussion is alarming and not in the best interest of the citizens of our state. We stand in opposition of the decoupling of the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering budget line item.

Further, this action sends the wrong message to the citizens of Florida about how the legislature and academic institutions should interact. We believe that any substantive action of this magnitude should be fully vetted by substantive committees in both chambers.

We respectfully request that this divisive budget amendment be removed from any version of the state budget and not adopted in conference.

Sincerely,

Rep. Alan Williams

FLBC Chairman

cc: The Honorable Rick Scott, Governor