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| First Row (L-R): Gwen Graham, Andrew Gillum, and Ron DeSantis Second Row (L-R): Philip Levine, Chris King, and Adam Putnam |
The forum is the place to ask candidates about big FAMU issues that they haven’t publicly addressed.
Performance-Based Funding Reform
Back in the last legislative session, Rep. Ramon Alexander, D-Tallahassee, and House Majority Leader Ray Rodrigues, R-Estero, introduced a bipartisan plan to overhaul the performance-based funding (PBF) system used by the Florida Board of Governors (BOG). FAMU and other smaller public universities have been denied millions of dollars due to the PBF metrics that favor bigger schools that already receive more state money.
The News Service of Florida reported that this changes proposed by Alexander and Rodrigues would provide money for “‘continuous improvement’ by the schools regardless of how they are ranked against each other.”
The gubernatorial candidates need to state whether they will support the plan by Alexander and Rodrigues to fix the unfair PBF system.
HBCU Earmarks
None of the gubernatorial candidates have promised to seek more earmarks for the four Florida historically black colleges and universities in the state appropriations bill.
FAMU has been underfunded by state for years. The three private HBCUs, Edward Waters College, Bethune-Cookman University, and Florida Memorial University, don’t receive anywhere near the amount annual state money that the private University of Miami gets.
Former Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton promised $25 billion for HBCUs across the nation. Georgia Democratic gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams has promised more money for capital projects at HBCUs her in state among other forms of aid. Maryland Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ben Jealous has said that he “will invest $2 billion into Maryland’s HBCUs as a settlement to the lawsuit over the State’s historic underfunding of these institutions.”
The Florida gubernatorial candidates should be asked how much new money they will seek for HBCUs in earmarks in response to the long-time lack of strong state support for the schools.
FAMU BOT Appointments
For Fall 2017, 6,428 of the total 9,909 students at Florida A&M University were women. That’s 64 percent. But there are no women who graduated from FAMU in any of the 11 appointed seats on the FAMU Board of Trustees (BOT). An alumna of FAMU hasn’t held one of those seats since 2016.
Six of the appointed seats are filled by the governor and the other five are filled by the BOG.
FAMU went from having six of the 11 appointed seats on its Board of Trustees filled by alumni in 2015 to now only two. At both the University of Florida and Florida State University, alumni hold the majority of the 11 appointed seats.
The FAMU NAA has spoken out publicly about the problem. But so far Gov. Rick Scott and the BOG haven’t announced any intention to correct it.
No candidate in the Florida gubernatorial race has publicly promised to work to restore the alumni majority on the FAMU BOT if elected.
All the gubernatorial candidates need to be asked about this issue. The candidates should promise to appoint FAMU alumnae to the BOT and work to make sure that FAMU alumni hold most of the 11 BOT seats like at UF and FSU.
The major candidates for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in Florida are: Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, former U.S. Rep. Gwen Graham, business owner Chris King, and former Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine. The major candidates for the Republican gubernatorial nomination in Florida are: U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis and Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Adam Putnam.