The Rattler Nation team wishes you a happy New Year's Day. Welcome to 2012!

FAMU School of Business and Industry (SBI) alumnus Javonté Anyabwelé continues to make big moves. Anyabwelé, 30, was recently appointed director of productivity for the Asia Pacific region for Bausch Lomb, and said he has FAMU to thank for his achievement.

“From the words on the school crest — Heart, Head, Hand, Field, and ‘Excellence With Caring’—to the core competencies taught in SBI, FAMU taught me how to convey these things and the importance of these principals to broader audiences. All of the aforementioned tangible and intangible ideals are paramount to the success I’ve had and will have in the future.”

In his new role, Anyabwelé, a native of North Minneapolis, Minn., will focus on operations planning and control and the sales and operations planning process with improvement targets on: realizing operations planning and control reduction, creating a robust and accurate forecasting model, which will work across Asia Pacific.


Anyabwelé is now based in Tampa, Fla.

“Mainly the day-to-day work will really focus on ensuring the products get to customers in hard-to-reach places at appropriate times while reducing costs, to ensure growth and profitability,” he said. “I will face many challenges as the region I will be supporting is rapidly growing and fast moving.”

Anyabwelé joined Bausch & Lomb in 2006 as senior buyer, indirect/supplier readiness and progressed through the roles of senior supplier quality engineer/supplier diversity coordinator to his most recent role as global external manufacturing manager/supplier diversity manager. Prior to Bausch & Lomb, he held the role of international project manager with Office Depot based in The Netherlands, and before that was employed as a professional health care representative with Pfizer Pharmaceuticals.

Anyabwelé is married to Talitha Anyabwelé, also a FAMU SBI graduate. The couple has one child, daughter Amina, 7 months.

The FAMU College of Law has opened a new "FAMU Plaza" at the south-end of its Orlando campus. An area formerly used as a pass-through to downtown eateries has now been converted to an outdoor lounge area for the College of Law community.

The gate-less area includes three 42” round tables with three backless seats and an umbrella at each table; seven 42” round tables with four backless seats; three 6’ benches with a backless-seating capacity of three each, and arms in between; and seven lighted ballards that will display the history of FAMU and the College of Law.


The area also includes two walkways - one paved with brick for donor opportunities. According to Loyld Glenn, FAMU Law's facilities director, the area will also be utilized to relieve congestion in the law school’s cafe and student lounge. The FAMU Plaza increases seating capacity by nearly 50 seats.

The grand opening of the FAMU Plaza at the law school featured remarks by Daisy Lynum, City of Orlando Commissioner, District 5; Thomas Haynes, FAMU Vice President of University Relations; and David Dalancey, III, President/CEO, One Day Came Construction. FAMU College of Law Dean LeRoy Pernell and Student Bar Association President Tremaine Reese also presented Lynum with a commemorative brick, which will be included on the donor walkway.

As this blogging team catches its breath from the extra hours we’ve put in over the last five weeks, we’d like to pause and thank our readers for helping us reach another huge milestone.

Rattler Nation, your top source for no-holds-barred editorials and insider’s information on FAMU, recently crossed the 2,000,000 hit benchmark. We celebrated our 1,000,000th page visit back on December 5, 2008.

We know you count on us to tell it like it is and we remain 100 percent dedicated to that mission.

Congresswoman Frederica Wilson, who succeeded FAMU alumnus Kendrick B. Meek in the U.S. House of Representatives, will introduce a bill to make hazing a federal offense. She says the new law will combat hazing incidents like the tragedy that claimed FAMU drum major Robert Champion’s life on November 19.

“Hazing is demeaning, dangerous, and, sadly, deadly,” Wilson said. “It’s time that we put an end to this horrible and humiliating ritual once and for all, so that no more students suffer the way that Robert and others have.”

A press release from Wilson's office highlights her efforts to fight hazing throughout her four-year tenure as the South Atlantic Regional Director for Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. A Miami Herald reporter nicknamed her “The Haze Buster” because of her very public stance to stamp out hazing on college campuses.


“I am having policy discussions now with presidents of historically-black colleges and universities, band members and presidents of Greek-letter organizations so that we will be able to craft a strong bill for introduction next month,” Wilson said.

Wilson is an HBCU alumna who earned her bachelor of science in elementary education from Fisk University.

FAMU's Lyceum Series will present the Dance Theatre of Harlem Ensemble on January 27, 2012 in Lee Hall Auditorium.

The Dance Theatre of Harlem (DTH) is a leading dance institution of unparalleled global acclaim. The organization boasts a touring professional ensemble, a community and pre-professional school for young dancers, and an arts-education program that serves the Harlem community and beyond.


The Ensemble, which was formed in the summer of 2008 to carry the social and artistic legacy of Dance Theatre of Harlem to communities that had been previously deprived of the company due to geographic or financial obstacles, was conceived as an extension of DTH’s celebrated Dancing through the Barriers. The Ensemble has a mission of education through the arts as well as artistic excellence consisting of 12 dancers, a ballet master/director, a concert grade pianist, a touring administrative and technical staff.

Since January 2009, the DTH Ensemble has toured in 43 cities and 24 states including the District of Columbia, while servicing a national community of dance lovers and DTH supporters.

The Rattler Nation team wishes you and your family a Merry Christmas! May the season bring happiness, joy and peace to you and your loved ones.

And a special holiday greeting and virtual hug to the dynamic advertisers who help make Rattler Nation happen.

It may not have been the night before Christmas, but judging by the faces of more than 300 children from the Tallahassee community it could have been. The Christmas cheer filled Gaither Gymnasium during the Florida A&M University (FAMU) holiday celebration, which was hosted by President James H. Ammons and Mrs. Judy Ammons.

The program benefited children from New Beginnings Child Development Center and Bond Elementary, Fairview Middle, the FAMU Developmental Research School, Oak Ridge Elementary, Griffin Middle, J. G. Riley Elementary, Nims Middle and Pineview Elementary Schools.

FAMU faculty and staff donated the gift cards, books and consoles.

Mrs. Ammons participated in the program by reading the “Twas the Night Before Christmas.”

“This is wonderful and really nice,” said Twan Jackson, a parent who has a son that attends Oak Ridge Elementary. “It is a blessing to watch all of the kids receive a gift.”


One student had a smile that stretched from ear to ear when he opened his gift.

“I got a gift card to Applebee’s,” said Oshard Constable, a sixth grader at Nims Middle School. “This is great. I am coming back here next year!”

A student at Riley Elementary School expressed her excitement as well.

“I enjoyed myself,” said the fourth grader. “I did not know they [FAMU] were going to give our presents.”

Nine children were completely surprised because they were given various game consoles. Upon entering, each child was given a ticket and told that he or she would have an opportunity to win a special Christmas gift. Those gifts included two Xbox 360s with a Kinect, a Nintendo Wii, a Playstation 3, a Nintendo DS XL, a Nintendo Dsi XL, a Playstation 2 and two PSPs.

Members of the Tallahassee Girls Choir of CHOICE, the FAMU cheerleaders, FAMU Jr. Cheerleaders and the Mountain Dew Cloggers, which entertained the audience with their fancy footwork and dance moves, entertained the children.

JET Magazine recently applauded FAMU for its commitment to providing a high-quality education at a reasonable cost.

“An education is the key to changing one's socioeconomic status,” FAMU Vice President for Student Affairs William Hudson Jr. said. “It is important that we do not price out students who want a quality education. An education is truly something that no one can take from you.”


Back in October, Rattler Nation reported that President James H. Ammons’ administration has reversed FAMU’s ten-year slump in lower division course load averages. Not only are course loads up, but FAMU’s lower division students (those with fewer than 60 credit hours) are now taking higher course loads than their peers at the University of Florida.

The increase in freshman and sophomore course loads at FAMU is important because it illustrates that the university is successfully addressing a key problem that prevents many of its students from graduating in a timely manner. FAMU’s housing shortage makes college very expensive for the student body. Most students come from families that make $30,000 or less per year. Students typically reduce their course loads as the cost of college goes up.

FAMU has taken a number of steps to help students take higher course loads. Ammons has beefed up scholarships and rolled out bigger fee breaks to help students obtain more money for classes. The Division of Academic Affairs led by Provost Cynthia Hughes-Harris has made more academic advisors available on campus. This helps prevent students from taking unnecessary courses that cost them lots of cash and slow down their path to graduation.

The university is also securing construction bonds to expand on-campus housing, which will permit even more students to avoid the high prices of off-campus apartments.

The Tallahassee Quarterback Club has honored FAMU freshman quarterback Damien Fleming with its Jake Gaither Sportsmanship Award.

Accompanied by his uncle, who drove from Jacksonville to attend the ceremony, Fleming thanked his teammates as he received the shiny trophy.

"I want to thank my lineman, because without them, none of this would be possible," he said, drawing a chorus of laughter from the audience.

FAMU Athletic Director Derek Horne and Head Football Coach Joe Taylor were both on hand to support Fleming.

"He's wise beyond his years," Taylor told the crowd. "With players like Damien, folks are saying the future is so bright at FAMU you need sunglasses."

On Monday’s CBS Evening News, Anchor Scott Pelley reported that “investigators are talking to more than 30 students and alumni who they believe may have participated in the hazing that killed a member of the [FAMU] marching band.”

Drum major Robert D. Champion died on November 19 after the Florida Classic in Orlando. Medical examiners declared the incident a homicide that resulted from hazing.

The Orange County Florida Sheriff’s Office announced on Friday that “homicide investigators have interviewed the vast majority of the individuals present during this incident.” Charges will be filed in the upcoming weeks.

The Orlando Sentinel's editorial board slammed Gov. Rick Scott's actions against FAMU with the strongest language that has appeared in any statewide newspaper. Its position is a 100 percent contrast to that of the St. Petersburg Times' editorial board, which cheered on the governor's attempt to strong-arm FAMU trustees into suspending the university president (without regard for the potential harm to FAMU's accreditation).

Make sure to vote on the quality of what the Sentinel wrote here.

From the editorial "Gov. Scott should nose out of school business:"

With a probe under way into the alleged hazing-related death of Florida A&M University drum major Robert Champion, Gov. Rick Scott last week stuck his gubernatorial nose where it didn't belong.

Supposedly concerned over the probe's transparency, Scott called for FAMU President James Ammons' temporary ouster.


Wisdom prevailed Monday when FAMU's board of trustees slammed the door on Scott's intrusion. As Tommy Mitchell, president of the FAMU National Alumni Association, put it: "How do you make a determination before all the evidence is in?"

Precisely. Board chairman Solomon Badger generously allowed that Scott likely was "well intended," given Champion's death and FAMU's history of hazing.

But Scott's butting into the business of FAMU's is reminiscent of other over-reaches this year, such as moving unilaterally to sell state-owned aircraft and breaching the separation of powers by holding up hundreds of proposed state rules.

The governor's ham-handed call to oust Ammons — who leads one of Florida's four historically black colleges and universities — also inadvertently created an unneeded racial distraction from the core issue: eradicating college hazing.

Scott's intervention had critics noting that serious hazing incidents at largely white Florida universities — including the University of Miami, where Chad Meredith's death in 2002 inspired a 2005 hazing law — never drew such gubernatorial intervention from Tallahassee.

Read the rest here.

The FAMU Board of Trustees declined Gov. Rick Scott’s recommendation to suspend President James H. Ammons while state officials continue various investigations at the university.

“We will stand firm against outside influence no matter how well intended,” Chairman Solomon L. Badger, III said during a morning teleconference meeting.

He concluded with a recommendation that the president’s status remain the same. None of the board members objected and no vote was taken on the issue.


Scott began strong-arming the FAMU trustees to place Ammons on administrative leave Thursday. The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) announced on the following morning that if trustees bent to pressure from the governor, it would put the university’s accreditation in jeopardy.

"For the sake of appearances, and to assure the public that these investigations are clearly independent, I believe it would have been in the best interest of Florida A&M University for President Ammons to step aside until all of these investigations are complete," Scott said in a statement released shortly after the meeting. "However, we have a process in Florida for the administration of the State University System, and that process has been followed. Like all other Floridians, I will abide by the decision made by the Board of Trustees.”

The FAMU trustees did vote to schedule a regular weekly meeting time to receive updates regarding the ongoing state investigations into the hazing death of Robert D. Champion and other matters at the school.

The Tallahassee Democrat ran an opinion column by former FAMU trustee and Student Body President Larry O. Rivers that placed FAMU’s current challenges into a historical context. Rivers says President James H. Ammons is part of a long line of FAMU leaders who confronted the university’s factional infighting head-on and found ways to succeed in spite of it.

From the column: “FAMU doesn’t need a peacemaker”:

The tendency to view African-Americans as a largely undifferentiated group that shares a single set of ethics, habits and politics remains one of the foremost obstacles to fact-based dialogues about race. Black civic society — the body of voluntary organizations and institutions created in response to social challenges faced by Americans of African descent — is not and never has been dominated by a single way of thinking. It is a contested space.

In contested spaces, unity comes from the lowest common denominator. For most black civil institutions, and especially public historically black colleges and universities such as Florida A&M, that lowest common denominator is race.

During times in which a perceived threat from whites seems imminent, FAMUans quickly circle wagons, take up picket signs, march in the streets and flood elected officials with letters. But as soon as that immediate danger is gone, the crisis-induced unity dissolves and gives way to the day-to-day norm of pandemic factionalism.


The deep rifts among FAMU's students, staff, faculty and alumni were not as visible to the outside public when university presidents reported directly to the Board of Control or its successor, the Board of Regents. These majority-white governing bodies had records of stringently enforcing discriminatory policies that treated blacks as inferiors. Any FAMUan who appeared to side with them over the president on a major issue risked being labeled, rightly or wrongly, as a sell-out.

However, much has changed since the Legislature abolished the Board of Regents in 2001 and established a board of trustees at each state university. FAMU's factional infighting took center stage and has become a recurring spectacle.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the heated debates concerning President James H. Ammons' handling of FAMU's hazing problem, particularly in light of band member Robert Champion's death. For example, many FAMUans, believe Ammons was right to dismiss band director Julian White for incompetence in reporting hazing. A passionate faction, though, sees White as a scapegoat.

Tallahassee Democrat Executive Editor Bob Gabordi is correct in saying White deserves a "full airing" with respect to his allegations that higher-ups did little to help him combat hazing. White should also candidly address any questions about his own credibility that might arise from a new Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation into suspected "financial irregularities" involving Marching 100 funds.

A vocal minority of FAMU trustees that includes Rufus Montgomery and C. William Jennings found common cause with some of White's angry supporters last week, calling for Ammons to join White on administrative leave. They also seem to have found a sympathetic audience with Gov. Rick Scott, who has now thrown his support behind their proposal. Before assuming that Montgomery and Jennings are genuinely committed to FAMU's best interests, though, the public should take a careful look at the legacy to which these two men are heirs.

In 2001, numerous members of FAMU's first Board of Trustees descended upon the university with a colonial mindset, staked out claims within the operating budget, and jealously defended those self-declared territories from competitors.

Many of the worst offenders were among the first generation of blacks who benefited from affirmative action in America's biggest companies. They had gracefully faced derisive names such as "quota hires" and "set-aside recipients" in hopes of ascending to the top of the corporate ladder; but more often than not, they collided with a glass ceiling. Affirmative action could mandate black access to employment and contracting opportunities, but it could not help most beneficiaries enter the "good-ol'-boy network" of backroom kickbacks.

The reshaping of Florida's higher-education system into a quasi-"corporate governance" model gave such disenchanted individuals a chance to try and replicate the system of sweetheart deals and buddy-hiring seen in many corporate boardrooms.

As trustee-led fights for influence over lucrative housing, athletic, consulting and personnel contracts increasingly dominated FAMU's internal politics, the university's financial division began mirroring the corrosive state of board affairs. FAMU's proud record of clean, unqualified financial statement audits from 1978 to 2002 came to an abrupt halt, replaced with a spate of blistering findings that soon landed the university on probation with its accrediting body.

James Corbin, the era's most powerful trustee, strove to deflect blame by insinuating that FAMU's board had inherited a financial mess from white state officials who did not hold previous FAMU administrations accountable. "We were not held, in my opinion, to the same kind of rigorous standards as the other universities," he asserted in a St. Petersburg Times article shortly after becoming FAMU's chairman.

As Ammons started cleaning up the finances in 2007 and put FAMU back on course for clean audits, Corbin — then an ex-trustee — persisted with this rhetoric. "They let FAMU get away with things other schools wouldn't because they didn't want to be labeled racists," Corbin remarked in a 2007 Tallahassee Democrat article.

To this day, Corbin has failed to provide evidence that any of FAMU's previous clean state audits were incorrect.

Jennings, Corbin's former vice-chairman, and Montgomery do not stand far from Corbin's mentality. If state officials finally launch a much-needed investigation into whether any FAMU trustees have attempted to abuse their positions, do not be surprised to see them wave the race card as frantically as Corbin did.

Former President Fred J. Gainous tried to work peacefully with conniving, power-drunk trustees and was eventually fired in the wake of problems that emerged after obvious board micromanaging. Former Interim President Castell V. Bryant did little to question possible conflicts of interest or breaches of public trust among the trustees who backed her.

Ammons has survived these past four years for the same reason that makes him fully capable of completing the next five years of his employment agreement, despite efforts to use the Champion tragedy as a pretense to end his presidency. He has not wasted time trying to appease the trustees and other so-called "FAMU supporters" who are focused on their own personal agendas. Ammons wisely negotiated a contract that requires a "supermajority" for termination, and he has maintained a robust following among the student, faculty and alumni groups that care about the university.

FAMU's strongest presidents never tried to heal the internal university factions that are often undergirded by opportunism, greed and self-importance. They thrived in spite of these factions.

The fate of FAMU President James H. Ammons lies squarely in the hands of the FAMU Board of Trustee who on Monday will decide whether or not to heed Gov. Rick Scott's "strong recommendation to place Ammons on suspension while the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) continues its investigations into the university."

Trustees should take no further action against Ammons.

Scott's unusual recommendation comes despite not having any evidence that Ammons has acted inappropriately or been uncooperative with the investigation. "I’ve not seen anything to suggest that he’s done the wrong thing,” Scott said. A reporter asked if anyone (including FDLE) had told Scott that Ammons was being uncooperative with the investigation. Scott said, "I have not heard that. No."

Then why is Scott attacking the leadership of Florida's only public historically Black university?

Scott's request of the FAMU Board of Trustees is unprecedented. He likely would not have made such a request of any other university board of trustees. And, he's provided few public details on why such a request should be entertained.

Scott has no constitutional authority to remove a college president. That authority lies solely with the Boards of Trustees. Scott knows that and is now attempting to "punk" FAMU trustees into doing his dirty work for him.

A faction of trustees, as recently as two weeks ago, failed in their attempts to place Ammons on leave pending the outcome of the investigation.

FAMU trustees must "man up", remain strong and vigilant and not bow down to "Boss Scott".

If Rufus Montgomery and Rick Scott succeed in pressuring the FAMU Board of Trustees to suspend President James H. Ammons on Monday, you can bet that the next motion before the board will be to hire Barbara Barnes as interim president, effective immediately.

Rattlers fought too hard to get rid of the original Castell Bryant to now let a Castell clone take control of Lee Hall.

Barnes was the back-up choice for most of the Jeb Bush-appointed trustees on the “transition committee” who banded together in 2004 to bring Castell in as interim president. There is little chance that she would have gotten their support if she had not been willing to follow the same harmful agenda that Castell did.

Montgomery, a former hired hand of Jeb, is now at FAMU doing the will of Jeb-buddy Rick Scott rather than what is right for his own alma mater. It looks like Scott has finally stepped into the fight to push Ammons out of FAMU because Montgomery failed to get the job done on his own back on December 8.

Scott has said that he knew nothing about any threat of FAMU being merged with Florida State University. But if FAMU gets another weak interim president like Castell, the university will have a hard time defending itself from anything FSU might try, like taking complete control of the joint College of Engineering in Innovation Park.


Castell did not even try to stop FSU from shoving FAMU out of the E-College. Ammons had to come down from his full-time job running North Carolina Central University to lead the battle that kept the E-College’s budget in FAMU’s hands.

FAMU cannot afford to let go of a president with a successful track record of defending the school in exchange for another Castell-like individual who does not.

And FAMUans cannot forget about the how Castell’s interim presidency was originally sold as a “short” arrangement, but ended up lasting more than two years. If Ammons is suspended or placed on any kind of leave on Monday, it is unlikely that FAMU will get another strong president before Scott leaves office on January 6, 2015.

Barnes might be the type of person who would make the governor’s office and Board of Governors happy, but she is not someone Rattlers can afford to take a chance on during these dangerous times.

The FAMU Board of Trustees must either rebuff the attempted interference of the Florida governor or risk creating an accreditation problem that will very likely be impossible to fix.

The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools says Gov. Rick Scott’s push to place FAMU President James H. Ammons on suspension could violate accreditation standards.

FAMU Chief of Staff Rosalind Fuse-Hall told the Tallahassee Democrat that SACS President Belle Wheelan communicated this message to the university on Friday morning. Wheelan will also write a letter to the Florida governor’s office with this same information.

SACS Standard 3.2.4 states that each member institution’s governing board must be “free from undue influence from political, religious, or other external bodies and [protect] the institution from such influence.”

The governor’s chief of staff, Steve MacNamara, defended his boss’ actions in the newspaper.


"He is not lobbying board members and will not," he said. "We await the letter from Dr. Wheelan and I am sure she will not be threatening FAMU with losing its accreditation based on the governor's statement. The governor will continue to express his opinion on issues he feels strongly about."

Scott admitted that he spoke with FAMU Board of Trustees Chairman Solomon L. Badger and “strongly recommended” that Ammons be placed on leave while state officials continue various investigations at the school. He also called Ammons to notify him about what he told Badger.

If FAMU loses its accreditation, it will become ineligible for all the grant and student financial aid programs run by the federal government. Alumni who graduate after the accreditation is revoked would be ineligible for jobs or graduate schools that require a degree from an accredited baccalaureate program.

On the heels of a FAMU student protest against Gov. Rick Scott’s request for President James H. Ammons’ suspension, numerous alumni have also called for the governor to back off.

"I think there's going to be a tremendous backlash on the governor," former state Sen. Alfred “Al” Lawson told the Tallahassee Democrat.

State Rep. Alan Williams, FAMU Trustee Spurgeon McWilliams, and FAMU National Alumni Association President Tommy Mitchell also told the newspaper that they were troubled by Scott’s recommendation.

"You can't just say, in a crisis, put the president on the sideline without anyone to act in his stead," McWilliams said." Most of the board just doesn't feel like Ammons has done that bad a job. The other thing is you don't know who's coming next."

"I don't think Ammons needs to be suspended because of hazing,” Mitchell added. “I'm concerned what the agenda is to remove a Florida A&M president at a time like this."


State Sen. Arthenia Joyner believes that Scott has committed a knee-jerk reaction.

“I have great concerns over the governor’s haste to recommend suspending Dr. Ammons while simultaneously admitting he has no knowledge of any wrongdoing,” she said in a press release. “It’s particularly galling that the governor justifies his action as a way to assure people the university is fully cooperating. This is the same Rick Scott who had no similar compunction to immediately step aside as CEO of HCA when the FBI launched its probe into what became the largest health care fraud case ever in this country’s history.”

John Michael Lee, an educational consultant, questioned why the governor did not intervene at Florida State University earlier this year when a student died as a result of an alcohol-related shooting.

“Why didn’t Governor Scott ask the Eric J. Barron, President of Florida State University, to step down on January 9, 2011 when a Florida State University sophomore, Ashley Cowie, was shot and killed at the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity house in what has been deemed an accidental, but alcohol-related, shooting,” Lee asked. “Cowie was a member of Chi Omega Sorority. A Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity member has been charged with manslaughter in the case. Governor Scott also did not ask for an FDLE investigation into the incident at Florida State University nor did the media sensationalize this event.”

Today, the Orange County Florida Sheriff's Office announced it will soon file charges in the homicide case of FAMU student Robert D. Champion.

The public statement followed the office's receipt of the final autopsy report from Jan Garavaglia, chief medical examiner for the Ninth Judicial Circuit. Garavaglia ruled that Champion died as a result of injuries he "sustained during a hazing incident."

"Homicide Investigators have interviewed the vast majority of the individuals present during this incident," a press release from Sheriff Jerry L. Demings' office read. "In the coming days and weeks investigators will be working with the State Attorney’s Office to identify the charges that are applicable."

The District Nine Medical Examiner's Office of Florida has issued its official ruling on Robert D. Champion's cause of death. Champion, a drum major in FAMU's Marching 100, was the victim of a homicide caused by injuries he sustained while being hazed.

The full text of the medical examiner's press release appears below.

RE: Robert Champion, deceased
(ME 2011-001392)

DATE OF DEATH: November 19, 2011

MANNER OF DEATH: Homicide

CAUSE OF DEATH: Hemorrhagic shock due to soft tissue hemorrhage
due to blunt force trauma sustained during a hazing incident.

CONCLUSION: Mr. Robert Champion, a previously healthy 26-year-old member of the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University marching band, collapsed and died within an hour of a hazing incident during which he suffered multiple blunt trauma blows to his body.


Immediately after the hazing incident, he complained of thirst and fatigue; minutes later, he noted loss of vision and soon after had a witnessed arrest. These symptoms are consistent with hypotension or shock. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation ensued with aspiration of stomach contents into his airway.

In the hospital, his hemoglobin and hematocrit were found to be extremely low (7.0 g/dL and 22%, respectively) with no external source of blood loss or intravascular hemolysis. During this time, his potassium was found to be at a normal level as was his creatinine kinase.

The autopsy revealed extensive contusions of his chest, arms, shoulder, and back with extensive hemorrhage within the subcutaneous fat, between fascial planes and within deep muscles. There was also evidence of crushing of areas of subcutaneous fat. He had no injuries to internal organs from the blunt trauma or any bone fractures. He had no evidence of natural disease except for a slightly enlarged heart with a normal left ventricular wall. Subsequent testing revealed no hemoglobinopathies (normal hemoglobin electrophoresis ruled out sickle disease and trait) and negative toxicology for drugs and alcohol. Microscopic examination revealed minimal fatty emboli. He was known to have had a normal hemoglobin and hematocrit (13.6 g/dL and 40.9%, respectively) back in 2008.

Based on the short period of time following the blunt trauma, premorbid symptoms, his collapse and dramatic drop in hemoglobin and hematocrit (indicating a significant rapid blood loss), and the extensive hemorrhage within his soft tissues, including deep muscles, it is our opinion that the death of Robert Champion, a 26-year-old male, is the result of hemorrhagic shock due to soft tissue hemorrhage, incurred by blunt force trauma sustained during a hazing incident.

Examination performed by Sara Irrgang, M.D., Associate Medical Examiner, with Jan Garavaglia, M.D., Chief Medical Examiner, in attendance.

After some 1,200 outraged FAMU students confronted him on his front lawn last night, Gov. Rick Scott agreed to schedule a meeting with President James H. Ammons, today. That talk will take place at 3:30 p.m.

The protest, led by Student Body President Breyon Love, told Scott to "stay the hell out" of FAMU following his public attempt to pressure the university's Board of Trustees to place Ammons on administrative leave while the state continues several investigations on the campus. The students demanded that he immediately withdraw his recommendation for the president's suspension.

Scott did not rescind the request for suspension, even though he has admitted that he has no evidence that Ammons did anything wrong. He also said no one has told him that the FAMU president was being uncooperative with the probes.

The governor did say that he would make sure to speak with Ammons about what is best for the school.

Rick Scott has the worst approval rating of any governor in the country and seems desperate to pull it up. Only one out of every four Florida voters thinks he’s doing an adequate job.

A Public Policy Polling survey says former Gov. Charlie Crist would defeat Scott by 55-32 if he ran against him as a Democrat. Florida Democrats are already considering recruiting Crist to be their 2014 gubernatorial nominee.

Scott knows he's in big trouble and has begun pulling out some smoke and mirrors to try and save his political career. Floridians saw some of this last week when Scott said he didn't want any more cuts to public education and asked for $1 billion more in school spending. But public schools took a $1.3 billion gutting from the budget Scott signed last year. And a big chunk of that new money comes from cuts to the Medicaid program that the state’s poorest children depend on.

The governor is now taking another step to improve his worst-in-the-nation poll numbers by jumping into the headlines of FAMU’s public crisis. He says the Board of Trustees should put FAMU President James H. Ammons on administrative leave until “investigations at the university are completed.”

Scott told reporters that he has "not seen anything to suggest that he’s done the wrong thing." He also admitted that no one told him that Ammons is being uncooperative.

The governor is looking more and more like Donald Trump and the other “carnival-barkers” who will do anything for attention.


FAMU's trustees already rejected a motion to suspend Ammons last week. The board needs to stand its ground and let Scott go play his political games somewhere else.

Maybe Scott thinks he and Ammons are alike. Scott resigned as Chairman and CEO of Columbia/HCA in 1997 when the feds started an investigation into Medicare and Medicare fraud at his company. He pled the 5th Amendment 75 times during a deposition on the case. His former company ended up pleading guilty to more than a dozen felonies and paid $1.7 billion in fines, which set a new record.

Ammons should not feel obliged to leave FAMU like Scott left Columbia/HCA. There isn't any reason for him to resign or be placed on suspension when no one has proven that he has done anything wrong.

Most Florida voters do not think Scott is up to the task of running the state. He definitely is not the person who should be trying to run FAMU.

This evening, FAMU Student Body President Breyon Love led close to 1,200 students to the Florida Governor’s Mansion to send Rick Scott a message.

"The Governor needs to stay the hell out of our institution,” Love told WCTV-6.

The students marched up to the governor's residence on North Adams Street to protest Scott's attempt to pressure to the FAMU Board of Trustees to place President James H. Ammons on administrative leave.

Scott told reporters he wants Ammons to temporarily step aside until the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) completes its investigations at the school. When further questioned by reporters, the governor clumsily admitted that he had no evidence that Ammons has done anything wrong or has failed to cooperate with the probes.


The governor, who was at home, came outside to the front yard to address the protestors with a loudspeaker. Former state Sen. Alfred "Al" Lawson and former FAMU Trustee R.B. Holmes were present and stood nearby as the governor spoke for just over five minutes.

Love later met with the governor inside the mansion. Scott still refused to rescind his request for Ammons to be placed on administrative leave.

Update (12:26 a.m.): WCTV-6 reports that Scott has agreed to have another discussion with Ammons on Friday, December 16. Many students are still unsatisfied.

The DeKalb County (Ga.) School System has suspended all marching band activities after district officials found “documented evidence of inappropriate activity that took place over the summer,” a district spokeswoman told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

District officials started asking questions after they becoming worried about possible connections to hazing in the FAMU Marching 100.

According to the newspaper: “Robert Champion, who died Nov. 19, was a Southwest DeKalb High School graduate. FAMU clarinetist Bria Hunter, injured in an earlier alleged hazing incident, was also a Southwest DeKalb graduate, as were two of the three bandmates who were charged with punching her hard enough to break her leg. (The third defendant is a Druid Hills High School graduate.)”


Hunter was hospitalized after being allegedly beaten while trying to become a member of the “Red Dawg Order,” an underground group associated with the FAMU band. The Red Dawgs are said to consist of students from Georgia.

Hunter has announced plans to sue FAMU. The suspects in her case say they will contest the charges.

“Our concern is that student safety needs to be assured,” District spokesman Walter Woods said. “And we have a zero-tolerance policy for harassment or any other inappropriate behavior.”

The district’s investigation will take up to two months to complete.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) has initiated a new investigation into “possible employee fraud and misconduct” at FAMU, according to the Associated Press.

FDLE officials informed FAMU Board of Trustees Chairman Solomon L. Badger and State University System of Florida Chancellor Frank Brogan about the probe on Tuesday. The letters did not provide specific details about the potential violations of law, but said they were discovered during the course of the investigation into the November 19 death of drum major Robert D. Champion.

"I didn't know anything about the fraud and I still don't," Badger told reporters.

The FDLE says it is looking at actions by certain FAMU personnel and “persons associated” with the school. The new investigation will be separate from the current one on Champion's death.

The Tallahassee Democrat has reported that "high-ranking sources" in the Florida governor's office stated that the probe is "into suspected fraud involving the finances" of the Marching 100.

Last week, FAMU halted all disciplinary penalties in connection to the Champion incident at the request of the FDLE. This led FAMU to place former Director of Bands Julian White on paid leave on an indefinite basis rather than moving forward with plans to let his termination go into effect on December 22, as originally scheduled.

Badger has promised FAMU’s continued full cooperation with FDLE officials.

FOX FOCUS: Former FAMU Band Member: MyFoxATLANTA.com