|
Jody,
I want FAMU to succeed but it just seems like sometimes you have to help yourself. And for me the alumni are not doing enough to demand accountability from their Alma Mater. If the band is doing well or the football team is having a good season, that's all they care about. It's just unbelievable to me that that much money can be missing. And the athletic ticket receipts being thrown out accidentally makes no sense to me. Even if no one is pocketing the money, why in the Hell aren't there accounting mechanism in place to avoid this kind of thing.
IMO, Dr. Bryant has done a good job in the interim and that lady has received death threats because of the tough decisions she has made to insure that FAMU continues its mission of Excellence With Caring. They don't need another task force, they need some action. The problems of FAMU affect us all as African Americans. WE first have to demand excellence from our universities. It's not enough for them to exist. WE know that we have to be better than PWI, sad but true. I went to PWI institution. The thing that I noticed that HBCUs don't have is institutional support from alumni or the community. They may go to a sporting event but they don't support the financially. I found at my institution, people who never went there but supported it locally. That's what we need. No more excuses about mismanagement. If you think your institution will mismanage your contribution, give a restricted gift that way they don't have discretion on how to use your funds.
So no, I'm not for closing FAMU down but at some point we can't continue to buy all of their issues. Also as a state funded school, we can't expect the state to continue to fund it if things don't get better. This is what I think will happen, FAMU will be given just enough to run itself but they have run out of favors so special projects and extra things won't happen until they get back in the good graces of law makers. I would like to see a private accounting firm brought in to help them right the ship. And one last thing, these problems didn't appear out of thin air. Dr. Humphries (brother of Delta National President Mona Humphries Bailey) was the President for 16 years, I know he had a lot to do with this, but he's been missing in action ever since.
|