Getting FAMU Back On Firm Footing

Tallahassee, Fla.
The courtyard outside the state Capitol building was a sea of gold and maroon as chanting students from Florida State University passed out popcorn to passers-by. Inside the building, however, on the 22nd floor, the tasteful sounds of piano and flute playing songs from "Porgy and Bess" were a sharp counterpoint to the blaring band music below.
This was "FAMU at the State Capitol Day," a day for Florida A&M University administrators, faculty and students wearing green and orange business attire to mingle with and say their thank-yous to legislators, staff and aides. And while the unwelcome appearance of Florida State Seminole boosters on the scene occasioned no little bitterness among the FAMU Rattlers, the intended audience for both displays didn't appear to have been fooled.
 "Florida State got off cheap," one young woman with a crisp chignon and legislative badge remarked to a companion as she entered the elevator. And indeed the mood, as the crowd listened to the speeches, sipped punch and munched discreetly on servings of Louisiana-style gumbo and spareribs, was upbeat — so much so that it seemed unimaginable that only six months before, Florida newspapers were full of ominous predictions that FAMU stood on the "brink of financial disaster," as the headline in the St. Petersburg Times read.
Matters were felt to be at so critical a pass in November that the state's chief financial officer, Tom Gallagher, took the almost unheard-of step of cutting off pay to the FAMU president and 18 top administrators until they turned over crucial financial records that were six weeks late.
The missing millions were later declared "found," and the allegations of mismanagement have mostly faded from public view. But only seven years after FAMU emerged as an emblem for Black college success with front-page coverage in Black Issues In Higher Education, and College of the Year honors from Time magazine and the Princeton Review, an impression of turmoil lingers, fed by:
•An attempt by the Student Government Association to impeach its president, Larry Rivers III, in fall 2003 — despite the fact that he won the election by a margin of more that 400 votes. The battle became so contentious that Student Affairs Vice President Dr. Patricia Green-Powell had to intervene.
•The university's flip-flopping on a decision to abandon the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference and become an NCAA Division I-A school. A divided board of trustees voted 7-5 in February to delay the move and return to Division I-AA.
•A contentious review process, from which President Dr. Fred Gainous emerged in April with an "OK" rating from the board of trustees.
•A legal battle whose latest twist is that the former National Alumni Association president, Carolyn Collins got the results of the election that defeated her thrown out.