Hobbs Sunday Conversation (Why FAMU Should Not Beg FSU to Continue the Joint College of Engineering---Kunta Kinte Version) After reading several articles on the pending FAMU/FSU College of Engineering split this morning, including one written by my friends Jeff Burlew and Karl Etters from the Tallahassee Democrat who reveal just how shady the timing of the pending split was handled only days after former FAMU Interim President Larry Robinson and FSU President Eric Barron left their respective offices last week, I am still trying to comprehend why a long list of FAMU alumni politicians, including US Rep. Corrine Brown, State Rep. Alan Williams and State Sen. Arthenia Joyner, seem bent on advocating that the schools remain joined. For said FAMU politicians to chronicle the history of how the joint College of Engineering came into being and the legacy of Jim Crow is one thing, and yes, such helps place things into context; but when the decision is done, as it seems now, and with everyone on the other side of the track, including former FSU President Barron, current FSU Interim President Garnett Stokes and prominent FSU alumni politicians voicing their support for the split, then damn it, we, as FAMUans, should not be begging FSU to stay. It makes us look weak, scared, timid, inept and dependent upon massa, oops I meant a group of individuals who are singularly focused upon trying to get FSU in to the prestigious Association of American Universities, a cluster that to date, only includes the University of Florida as far as Floridas public universities are concerned. Those FSU Engineering supporters are not concerned one damned bit about FAMU or continuing the partnership, so neither should we FAMU supporters be concerned about them and as I wrote last week, the only thing we should be doing at this juncture is demanding equal funding and equal programs for the FAMU Engineering school or promising---not threatening but promising---the filing of a major civil rights lawsuit, the likes of which the State of Florida and its non-FAMU concerned legislature has never seen should the state balk on this funding task.
Posted on: Sun, 06 Apr 2014 13:29:10 +0000