Exchanging $12.9M engineering budget for deanship is nothing close to a fair trade

On June 3, Florida State University President John Thrasher said that FSU will be the new fiscal agent for the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering (COE). FAMU had served as the fiscal agent/budget manager since 1987.

That statement by Thrasher came two days after a joint press release from FAMU and FSU announced that COE Dean Yaw Yeboah would step down on July 31. The June 1 release added that “the tenure home for the next dean will rotate to Florida A&M University.” FSU had served as the tenure home of all the deans since 1987.

The FAMU Board of Trustees did not take a vote to approve any changes to the 1987 agreement that designated FAMU as the fiscal agent/budget manager for the College of Engineering before Thrasher’s announcement on June 3.

Exchanging the $12,996,539 operating budget for the COE for the deanship is nothing close to a fair trade and greatly diminishes FAMU’s influence in the program.

Back in 1987, FAMU President Frederick S. Humphries and FSU President Bernie Sliger signed an agreement that said that FAMU would permanently manage the operations budget for the College of Engineering.

Another key part of the compromise was the decision to give FSU its choice for the location of the college (Innovation Park). FAMU had wanted the location to be at the site of the former Elberta Crate Factory, but forfeited that goal as part of the deal that gave it the budget authority for the college.

The new changes place FSU in charge of 100 percent of the money that the Florida Legislature appropriates to the College of Engineering. FSU is receiving the $12,996,539 in the budget entity entitled “FAMU/FSU College of Engineering” and is continuing to receive a separate multi-million dollar appropriation for the COE in the FSU general revenue budget.

A Tallahassee Democrat article from 2014 reported that “the FSU budget is $5 million ‘and has been growing,’ [Dean Yaw Yeboah] said.”

The new arrangement for the College of Engineering is not a fair deal for FAMU. FAMU has not received a separate multi-million dollar budget for the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering in its general revenue appropriation and does not have the option of moving the site of the three-building college to a new location of its choice. FAMU has taken a big step backwards that harms its ability to have a meaningful say in the operation of the College of Engineering.

Note: This post contains corrections made on October 19, 2015.