Sandra Steele, Educational Consultant

Eight FAMU Business Professors Losing Their Jobs

June 6, 2006
by Diane Hirth; Democrat Senior Writer

Eight professors at Florida A&M University's nationally respected School of Business and Industry have received pink slips.

Responding to this and other potential staff changes, the Rev. R.B. Holmes Jr., the trustee leading the presidential search, shared a memo with other trustees, Interim President Castell Bryant and Provost Debra Austin that calls for a moratorium at FAMU on "major personnel layoffs" and "the hiring of deans."

This comes as candidates for the vacant business-school dean position are scheduled for interviews on campus next week, and half the school's deans' posts are vacant.

"I have been in deep thought in reference to the future of FAMU. I believe we are six to 12 months from hiring a new president," Holmes said in a Saturday memo directed to board Chairwoman Challis Lowe. "My primary thoughts and concerns are that these (dean and top staff) positions should be left to the discretion and is the inherent right of the new president."

The fired professors, nontenured but some with long years at FAMU and corporate resumes, were asked to vacate their offices within five days, according to Bill Tucker, United Faculty of Florida's chief negotiator at FAMU.

The letters were sent last Friday by certified mail, he said.

"Our primary goal is to be accredited," Austin, who signed the layoff notices, explained Monday. The decision was not taken lightly, and "It's always difficult when you're dealing with people," she said.

Removal of eight of 11 professional-development faculty is part of the game plan to get the business school accredited, she said. Lacking a permanent dean since the charismatic, well-connected Sybil Mobley retired in 2003, the school is under pressure to get an academic stamp of approval and reverse its declining enrollment.

The laid-off professors were among non-Ph.D. faculty recruited by Mobley to help students succeed in the corporate culture.

"At the end of the day, there should be more, but we won't get there overnight," said Austin, promising the business faculty will grow in the areas of finance, accounting and management-information services.

The school "must ensure that it is keeping up with the changes in today's global marketplace," Interim Dean Patrick Liverpool said in a statement.

"I'm OK with a plan to get the school accredited," said trustee and recent business-school graduate Corey Alston, adding he hoped that in the process, "We don't step on toes."

The university has gone through a number of abrupt decisions and departures under Bryant, who speaks about the necessity of a culture of change at FAMU. Holmes requested his proposed moratorium on hirings and firings, along with a raise for Developmental Research School teachers, be discussed at the board's June 29 meeting.

Bryant was unavailable for comment.

"You're talking about this weekend to get out of Dodge, I don't understand why this is necessary," Tucker said of the professors whose jobs officially end June 30. "There's no fiscal crisis we know of."

The faculty's contract requires the administration to give the union a voice before such action is taken, and employees a year's notice before layoffs, if possible, he said.

FAMU School of Business and Industry faculty who were let go: Juanda Beck-Jones, Booker Daniels, Frederick DuPree, Anna Green, Thomas Jefferson, Edward Nelson, Ronald Tate and Booker Warren.

Contact senior writer Diane Hirth at (850) 671-6546 or dhirth@tallahassee.com