Appointing strong mid-level administrators to work under weak provost doesn’t cut it

The FAMU faculty has been the biggest source of stability at the university since President Frederick S. Humphries left in 2001. A number of faculty members who were hired by the Humphries administration have risen to become the premier young administrative leaders in the Division of Academic Affairs.

Last year, Genyne Henry Boston received an appointment to serve as the associate provost for faculty affairs and faculty development and David H. Jackson, Jr. was selected as the associate provost for Graduate Education and dean of Graduate Studies. Just last week, Shelby R. Chipman became the new director of FAMU’s Marching Band and Pep Bands.

They join other Humphries-era hires who are now the faces of FAMU’s administrative future. They include School of Business and Industry Dean Shawnta Friday-Stroud, College of Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities Dean Valencia E. Matthews, College of Science and Technology Dean Maurice D. Edington, and School of the Environment Dean Victor M. Ibeanusi.

(L-R) Genyne Henry Boston, David H. Jackson, Jr., and Shelby R. Chipman

But these strong mid-level administrators are all faced with the unnecessary obstacle of working under a weak provost.

Back in 2015, then Board of Trustees Chairman Rufus Montgomery made a spot-on comment about the appointment of Marcella David to the position of provost and vice-president for academic affairs.

“I looked at the search process, and I’ll leave it alone, but the search process for the provost, there were other people who had actually been provost, not professors at law schools,” he said at a June 9 committee meeting. “I still don’t know to this day how being an associate professor in a law school in Iowa qualifies you to be the Chief Academic Officer at Florida A&M University. I just don’t get that.” 

On May 20, 2015, David voted in favor of a resolution by the Joint College of Engineering Governance Council to shift the fiscal agent responsibilities for the College of Engineering from FAMU to FSU.

Faculty Senate President Bettye A. Grable said that “the decision to move the [FAMU-FSU College of Engineering’s] budget control to FSU was based on a unilateral approval without the prior approval by the Board of Trustees and other constituents.”

David has also failed to provide leadership in order to reverse the enrollment decline or aggressively expand Ph.D. programs.

The excellent mid-level administrators in the Division of Academic Affairs need a top-quality provost to give them the guidance and amount of support necessary for their development as academic leaders.

David doesn’t fit the bill. Her administrative background wasn’t adequate for the provost job at what is now an “R2” doctoral university and her poor performance shows it. She is standing in the way of progress in the FAMU Division of Academic Affairs.