FAMU President Larry Robinson, yesterday, traveled to the Galimore-Powell Fieldhouse on campus to meet face-to-face with members of the Rattler football team and staff to discuss many of their concerns and answer questions raised by the players in a five-page letter they sent to him on Tuesday.
Robinson called the meeting professional, courteous, and understanding. “I got a little bit more of a sense of the passion and urgency,” Robinson said.
“That's very disturbing to me because I know how much we do care to make this program whole. I told the young men that talking to them directly better indicates what their concerns are. I cannot be accountable to what's out there on social media,” he added.
“All I’m trying to do now is look at the situation as it is now and (convey) that the team is working on our students’ behalf,” he said.
Robinson told players the university has committed to adding five or more additional compliance employees and two academic advisers to assist athletes. He also said all 18 academic advisors at FAMU will be trained in “some of the nuances" associated with athletics.
The timetable for compliance, he said, is 45-60 days but he hopes to have employees in place by the conclusion of the fall semester.
The situation with FAMU football hit a boiling point late Thursday, according to Head Coach Willie Simmons, when staff received word that as many as 26 football players they had anticipated making the trip to Chapel Hill were deemed ineligible for a myriad of reasons.