Quote:
Originally posted by AKA2D '91
Florida A&M president fired
Wednesday, September 29, 2004 Posted: 10:07 AM EDT (1407 GMT)
Florida A&M president Dr. Fred Gainous leaves a Board of Trustees
meeting Tuesday.
TALLAHASSEE, Florida (AP) -- The president of Florida's historically
black public university was fired Tuesday after a little more than a
two-year tenure marked by a dispute over the school's football
program and bookkeeping problems.
Florida A&M board of trustees voted 9-4 to dismiss Fred Gainous
effective December 31. It provided what all agreed was a meaningless
caveat -- that he could keep the job if he wins unanimous board
support by then.
"We knew the job was dangerous when we took it," Gainous said. "We
thought we could make a difference. And I think we have."
Gainous became president of the 13,000-student university in July
2002. His decision earlier this year to delay moving the football
program to NCAA Division I-A left a badly split board and divided
loyalties among the school's alumni.
Gov. Jeb Bush said he supported the decision to remove Gainous,
saying in a statement: "It is my sincere hope that the interests of
FAMU's students remain the school's number one priority."
Trustees chairman James Corbin said there would be a national search
for a replacement. Trustee Barney Bishop III, however, called the
ouster "a railroad job."
"This agenda was manipulated to get the result that they wanted,"
Bishop said.
Though Bishop said he feared the decision would slow fund-raising
efforts, a faculty member said it was time for a change.
"Sooner or later, you can't continue to say, 'Sorry I made a
mistake,"' said William Tucker, president of the university's chapter
of the United Faculty of Florida. "Too much water had gone under the
bridge for the situation to be salvageable."
Among other problems, a 2003 review found the school's construction
budget was off by more than $3 million.
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Living in Tallahassee, I'm very familiar with what's going on over there at FAMU. This situation has been brewing for months. The alumni were not happy with Dr. Gainous at all. He came in with good intentions I believe, but who knows what went wrong. I know there move to Division I-A was wrong! They moved without even a forethought to what i was gonna take to actually make the jump. Not talking just being successful, I mean upgrading athletic facilities, providing more athletic scholarships etc. I never wanted to go to FAMU but they do have a few nationallly renownd programs. Recently the much maligned financial aid dept. accidentally sent people double net checks. And a girl I know who is a student at FAMU, her net check was sitting at the bottom of a pile. If she didn't go in to the office, she might have never gotten it. And it's not the students. It's the average HS Diploma workers, that live in Frenchtown who are the problem.(If you're familiar with Tallahassee, you know how Frenchtown is.) They just need someone to come in and overhaul the entire University. FAMU is a good school with a rich legacy! Something has to be done!