Tallahassee Police Department (TPD) Officer Shane Porter, who investigated an alleged hazing incident within FAMU’s Delta Iota Chapter of Kappa Kappa Psi National Honorary Band Fraternity, said a Tallahassee Democrat article about the case might have negatively affected his attempts to contact suspects and witnesses.

Porter made the statement in his report includes while recounting a discussion with FAMU Music Professor Longineu Parsons. Parsons was the individual who told ex-FAMU Director of Bands Julian White about the alleged hazing. White then turned the information over to the FAMU police.

“On January 30, 2012, I spoke with Longineu Parsons via telephone,” Porter wrote. “Parsons was extremely upset at the fact that the Tallahassee Democrat had run a story in the paper on January 28, 2012, before the conclusion of the investigation. He was upset because when he was contacted by the Tallahassee Democrat reporter, he specifically asked them not to print the story yet so it wouldn’t hinder the investigation. I informed him that the story had likely hurt the speed at which the investigation would take place due to the fact that I wasn’t able to get anyone to return my phone calls after the story was printed.”


This part of Parson’s report led Tallahassee Democrat Executive Editor Bob Gabordi to write the following response on his blog: “The case also provides insight into the culture of secrecy, with key players involved in the investigation complaining – including the person who reported the incident and the TPD officer investigating the case – that the Tallahassee Democrat had slowed down the investigation or hindered it somehow. Never mind that there would have been no investigation were it not for the Democrat’s reporter doing her job.”

The FAMU Department of Public Safety was already investigating the case long before the Tallahassee Democrat printed anything. FAMU police received White’s report about the alleged hazing on Nov. 21, 2011.

FAMU Chief of Police Calvin Ross told the Orlando Sentinel that his department did not immediately transfer the case to TPD because it was carrying out its own preliminary investigation. FAMU police have the authority to investigate possible criminal activity by student organizations registered on the campus even if some of the alleged activities are suspected to have taken place off university property. He also says 90 percent of the hazing cases that his department investigates involve off-campus incidents.

"There is no requirement that if a case does not originate on campus that we have to turn it over to an outside agency. The investigators had every intention of working this case through to the end," Ross said in a WCTV-6 interview.

TPD learned about the case from a media report on Jan. 20 and asked FAMU’s Department of Public Safety for the case file. TPD received the case file on Jan. 23 and began its own investigation on that date.

Becoming a dentist takes a very long time and a bunch of hard work. You have to take at least 8 years of dentistry school and graduate. This is a lot of work but the payout is worth every second of hard work you ever put into it. Below are some reasons why becoming a dentist is a very smart decision.

Not only will you be doing what you love and helping people everyday, you will also be earning quite a bit of money doing so. I go into more detail in the dentists salaries tab above but on average you earn over $120,000 a year! That is a lot of money to be getting paid for what you enjoy doing. If you enjoy learning about the human body and mouth then becoming a dentist will suite your interests. You get to work with people everyday and interact with your community. You will also have the option to become a specialist in a certain form of dentistry such as a orthodontist or oral surgeon. This adds a perk that most jobs don't have. If you get bored being a general dentist you can always go back to school to specialize in something. This is what makes being a dentist so worthwhile.

1. Inorganic Chemistry (1 year)
2. Organic Chemistry (1 year)
3. Math (physics 1 semester, trigonometry 1 semester)
4. Biology (1 year)
5. Human Anatomy

Today, FAMU trustees reversed one of their previous votes just days after Gov. Rick Scott pressured them to do so.

The FAMU board announced the appointment of an Anti-Hazing Committee on Feb. 9. The committee’s mission was to come up with “findings and recommendations to be presented to the FAMU Board of Trustees for consideration and approval.”

On March 23, trustees approved the committee’s request to change its mission from a policy recommendation committee to a fact-finding committee. The vote permitted the committee to operate without the public notice requirements of Florida’s Sunshine Law. Committee members asked for the change in order to help them work more quickly and meet the board’s deadline for its report.

Scott asked FAMU trustees to change their vote on March 27. He said he personally wanted the committee to do all of its work at open meetings.

"It is my hope that the Board of Trustees reconsiders its decision and reverses it,” Scott said in a letter to FAMU’s trustees.

FAMU Trustee Torey Alston introduced a motion at a conference call this afternoon that did exactly what the governor wanted. The motion passed with an 8-2 vote.


Before the vote, Anti-Hazing Committee Chairman Stephen Craig Robinson said he was offended by accusations that the panel asked for the mission change because it wanted to be secretive. He said publicly noticing every phone conversation or email would slow the committee down from meeting the deadline for its report.

“I take offense at the notion that people would suggest that I am doing what I am doing to be secretive,” Robinson said. “We have our good names and reputations on the line.”

Robinson said that he and four of the other Anti-Hazing Committee members would resign if trustees voted to change the committee’s mission.

Trustee Rufus Montgomery responded by saying: “That’s akin to a child saying I’ll take my toys and go home.”

“Go ahead and resign!” Montgomery yelled to Robinson.

Alston also addressed concerns that the board’s decision to reverse its previous vote following pressure from the governor’s office would lead to an accreditation problem.

Comprehensive Standard 3.2.4 of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) 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.” SACS previously scolded Scott for trying to pressure FAMU trustees to suspend President James H. Ammons.

“I have not been influenced by any forces,” Alston said.

"Yes" votes: Torey Alston, Bill Jennings, Chuck Badger, Charles Langston, Kelvin Lawson, Breyon Love, Spurgeon McWilliams, and Rufus Montgomery.

"No" votes: Belinda Shannon and Karl White.

The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) already told FAMU’s Board of Trustees in December that if they let Gov. Rick Scott boss them around, the university could lose its accreditation. That warning should have been enough. But obviously it wasn’t.

On Tuesday, Scott started strong-arming FAMU’s board to reverse its vote to let the newly-formed Anti-Hazing Committee meet in private. FAMU Chairman Solomon L. Badger, III has now scheduled a special board meeting to consider the governor’s request this afternoon.

"It is my hope that the Board of Trustees reconsiders its decision and reverses it,” Scott said in a letter to FAMU’s trustees.

SACS Comprehensive 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.”

SACS previously scolded Scott for trying to pressure FAMU trustees to suspend President James H. Ammons.


“Should the Board decide to suspend the President that is well within their role as members of the governing board,” SACS President Belle S. Wheelan said in a letter to Scott on December 16. “If, however, they do so at your direction, they will jeopardize the accreditation of the University as well as its ability to provide federal aid to their students.”

But that warning hasn’t stopped Scott from trying to push FAMU’s trustees around, again.

In his March 27 letter, the governor claimed that his major concern was making sure that FAMU Anti-Hazing Committee complies with the Government-in-the-Sunshine Law. The law requires policy-making bodies such as boards of trustees at state universities to conduct their business at meetings that are open to the public.

"Who will monitor whether the members are toggling between fact-finding and possible policy and procedural changes that would make such a meeting subject to Florida's Sunshine Laws?" Scott wrote.

FAMU has already explained that the Anti-Hazing Committee has no power to approve any policy or procedural changes. None of the committee members are FAMU trustees.

Scott is not a judge. He is not the Florida attorney general, either. If he thinks that the closed meetings of FAMU Anti-Hazing Committee will violate the Sunshine Law, he should ask for a legal interpretation from a Florida court or the Florida attorney general.

Until Scott is able to present that type of legal opinion to the FAMU Board of Trustees, he is trying to get them to change their previous decision for no reason other than his personal preference. That puts FAMU in danger with SACS.

Back when Scott asked the board to suspend Ammons, Badger convened a special meeting to address the governor’s concern. He began the meeting with a statement that said: “We will stand firm against outside influence no matter how well intended.”

FAMU trustees are not standing “firm against outside influence” by scheduling a special meeting every time the Florida governor says “jump!” Badger should not have called a special meeting until the governor provided PROOF that the Anti-Hazing Committee could not legally meet in private.

SACS cannot punish the Florida governor. But it can and will punish FAMU if it the university trustees violate Comprehensive Standard 3.2.4. The trustees who are too scared to uphold Comprehensive Standard 3.2.4 should all resign before they cost FAMU its accreditation.

FAMU Chief of Police Calvin Ross defended his department’s authority to conduct preliminary investigations of reported hazing incidents before turning the cases over to other law enforcement agencies.

The FAMU Department of Public Safety has come under fire for not immediately informing the Tallahassee Police Department (TPD) when it was told about a suspected off-campus hazing involving the university’s Delta Iota Chapter of Kappa Kappa Psi National Honorary Band Fraternity.

Ross told the Orlando Sentinel that his department did not immediatley transfer the case to TPD because it was carrying out its own preliminary investigation. FAMU police have the authority to investigate possible criminal activity by student organizations registered on the campus even if some of the alleged activities are suspected to have taken place off university property.

"There was nothing unusual or out of order," Ross told WCTV-6. "We work off-campus hazing cases too."

Ross said 90 percent of the hazing cases that his department investigates involve off-campus incidents.

"There is no requirement that if a case does not originate on campus that we have to turn it over to an outside agency. The investigators had every intention of working this case through to the end," Ross said in a WCTV-6 interview.


Former band director Julian White told FAMUPD about the alleged incident on Nov. 21. TPD called for FAMU for information about the case after learning about it from a media report on Jan. 20. TPD received the case file on Jan. 23 and began its investigation on that date.

Ross said the alleged Kappa Kappa Psi hazing was part of a set of cases his detectives were investigating at the same time.

"They were working all of these cases somewhat collectively," Ross said. "There was no foot dragging on this at all."

According to WCTV-6, Ross said FAMUPD was originally told that the hazing took place in spring 2011, rather than 2010. That meant the department did not have to rush in order to get ahead of the two-year statute of limitations for misdemeanor hazing. The statute of limitations for felony hazing is three years.

The executive editor of the Tallahassee Democrat claims that the FAMU administration misled the FAMU Board of Trustees about the status of the Kappa Kappa Psi case.

“FAMU was not truthful in its report to its Board of Trustees when it said the case was being investigated by TPD, whether intentional or another example of mismanagement,” Bob Gabordi wrote in his blog.

But Gabordi’s newspaper has not published a quote that shows a FAMU official telling the board that the case was under TPD investigation.

A “Having investigation time line” published by the Democrat on March 29 did write the following: “Early January 2012: A compilation of reports of hazing is provided to FAMU Board of Trustees members. Included on the list is reference to the allegations presented Nov. 21. The list says the case's outcome is ‘Off Campus/Tallahassee Police.’”

The fact that the case was listed as “Off Campus/Tallahassee Police” is not the same as saying that a TPD investigation had started. Even though the FAMUPD designated the case as one that would eventually be turned over to TPD, it still had the authority to do its own preliminary investigation before transferring the case file.

Back on Dec. 15, 2011, Gov. Rick Scott recommended that the FAMU Board of Trustees suspend President James H. Ammons while the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) investigated the death of drum major Robert Champion. He also called Ammons and personally suggested that the president temporarily step down. Scott said Ammons’ temporary departure would show that there was full cooperation with the criminal investigation.

“I called President Ammons and I suggested that at this time, uh, that he, you know, step aside during the investigation,” Scott told reporters. “Uh, make sure that everybody is comfortable that the right things are happening there. There’s complete cooperation.”

But Orange County Sheriff Jerry L. Demings says that Ammons did fully cooperate with his investigation, which is now complete. A statement from Demings’ office thanked the Ammons administration for providing critical help to the Champion case detectives.

“This investigation could not have been accomplished without the support of the FAMU Administration and we do thank them for their cooperation,” said Ginette Rodriguez, a spokeswoman for the sheriff.


Back at the Dec. 8, 2011, FAMU Board of Trustees meeting, Scott’s go-to trustee (Rufus Montgomery) failed to deliver on the task of suspending Ammons. Seven days after Montgomery dropped the ball, Scott finally went public to show that he was the real leader behind the push to remove Ammons from office.

When reporters asked Scott on Dec. 15 why he felt Ammons needed to take a leave of absence, the governor gave a long string of clumsy answers.

He said that no one had told him that Ammons was doing anything to get in the way of the investigation.

“No one’s said anything to me, that uh, there’s not been, uh, complete cooperation,” Scott said.

He also admitted that he had no evidence that Ammons had acted inappropriately.

“I’ve not seen anything to suggest that he’s done the wrong thing,” Scott said.

That evening, Student Body President Breyon Love and close to 1,200 of his fellow students marched to the Governor’s Mansion to protest Scott’s attempt to get rid of Ammons. The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools warned the governor the next morning that his actions could cost FAMU its accreditation.

FAMU trustees stood up to Scott and kept Ammons in office.

Orange County Sheriff Jerry L. Demings’ deputies have completed their investigation into the death of Robert Champion and turned the findings over the region’s state prosecutor.

In a press release, Demings’ office included a special “thank you” to FAMU President James H. Ammons.

“This investigation could not have been accomplished without the support of the FAMU Administration and we do thank them for their cooperation,” said Ginette Rodriguez, a spokeswoman for the sheriff.

Orange County detectives worked more than 1,000 man hours and interviewed more than 40 individuals.

State Attorney Lawson Lamar (pictured right) will now determine what charges to file. He has already assigned a member of his office, Ken Lewis, to serve as the lead prosecutor in the Champion case. Lewis is a veteran homicide trial lawyer.

All four of FAMU President James H. Ammons’ annual financial statement audits from the Florida auditor general have been spotless. So now, the Tallahassee Democrat is trying to use a FAMU internal audit investigation to help it create “news” to place on the Associated Press wire.

An article written by Democrat reporter Jennifer Portman (pictured) highlights the fact that FAMU’s Division of Audit and Compliance is reviewing complaints about the accounting used by the Student Government Association’s budget coordinator.

Florida’s public universities all have internal auditors who try to find and fix problems before the state auditors get the books at the end of the fiscal year. Those staffers help schools like FAMU and Florida State University get clean annual audits from the state.

The funny thing is that the Democrat isn’t making a big deal of the numerous findings from FSU’s internal audit investigations. Maybe Democrat Executive Editor Bob Gabordi has been too busy chatting it up with former FAMU Interim President Castell Bryant again to notice that FSU’s chief audit officer has also uncovered financial problems.


Portman’s also article talks about the qualified opinions FAMU received from the state auditors in 2004-2005, 2005-2006, and 2006-2007. But she does not state the fact that Castell, Gabordi’s telephone pal, was responsible for all those qualified opinions.

Below are a few excerpts from FSU’s 2010-2011 Office of Audit Services report.

FSU Student Success Building

“The agreement between the University and the Construction Manager (CM) was not clear regarding the limitation of wage rates or what constitutes ‘actual salary rate.’ As a result, there appeared to be either an overpayment to the CM of $56,000 or an underpayment of $15,000.”

“Most of the fringe benefits components of the multipliers applied to salary expenses and charged to the University were greater than the rates supported by the CM’s accounting records. Depending on the interpretation of the contract and whether bonuses are allowable, the University overpaid the CM by an amount ranging from $14,000 to $84,000.”

“The CM billed and the University paid $60,000 of questionable salary expenses.”

“We identified other costs totaling $1,660 that appear to be unallowable.”

FSU Conference Center

“The agreement between the University and the CM was not clear regarding the limitation of wage rates or what constitutes ‘actual salary rate.’ Depending on the interpretation of the contract, there is either an overpayment or underpayment to the CM ranging from an overpayment of $177,000 to an underpayment of $84,000.”

“Most of the construction multipliers applied to salary expenses charged the University were greater than the rates supported by the CM’s accounting records. Depending on the interpretation of the contract and whether deferred salaries are allowable, the University overpaid the CM by an amount ranging from $12,000 to $59,000.”

Earlier this week, an ESPN article reported that deceased FAMU drum major Robert Champion was a member of an underground student organization named the Red Dawg Order. The Florida Times-Union previously reported that Champion was a Red Dawg in an article published on Feb. 4th.

The Red Dawg Order is a group that has a reputation for hazing. Back in December 2011, three men who were alleged members of the Red Dawg Order were booked on charges that they hazed Marching 100 student Bria Hunter. Hunter suffered a broken thigh and blood clouts after being fist-punched and beaten with a metal ruler during an unauthorized initiation process.

Times-Union reporter Topher Sanders interviewed two of the Red Dawg Order’s nine founders who said they were embarrassed by what has happened to the group. They told him they created the Red Dawgs in 1994 as a way of bringing together Georgia students in the Marching 100.


According to Sanders’ coverage, “the group helped new students with navigating financial aid, picking classes and studying music.”

“I would like for the Red Dawgs to return those original principles and even be more than that,” said FAMU alumnus and Red Dawg co-founder Jerrico Johnson. “I would like them to continue assisting each other and helping others, and using music to do that. I’d like for them to be the standard for excellence and not the excuse for why negative and derogatory activities are happening in bands.”

A recent article by Associated Press reporter Gary Fineout claims: “Hundreds of pages of records show years of repeated warnings about brutal hazing passed without any serious response from [FAMU’s] leadership until last November's beating death of drum major Robert Champion.”

But later on in the article, Fineout admits that FAMU police investigations into alleged hazing incidents were “commonplace.”

“Police investigations into hazing were so commonplace that FAMU police even had a ‘band hazing questionnaire’ that it submitted to students,” Fineout writes.

Fineout does not explain how FAMU could conduct regular criminal investigations into reported hazing at the same time it was not dedicating “any serious response” to hazing.


The article also admits that FAMU “held mandatory sessions with students each fall, warning them that hazing is a felony in Florida and requiring students to sign a form acknowledging the consequences.”

If Fineout understands that it was FAMU’s standard practice was to investigate hazing complaints and make sure that students knew hazing is against the law, what is the basis for his allegation that FAMU hasn’t taken hazing seriously?

Fineout’s own information points to a culture of secrecy and conspiracy of silence among certain students as being the real source of the problem.

“Many police investigations into hazing went nowhere because students stonewalled and refused to cooperate,” Fineout writes.

Marching 100 member Keon Hollis, a drum major who went through the “Crossing Bus C” initiation on Nov. 19th, says he and Robert Champion voluntarily submitted themselves to the hazing ritual.

FAMU’s challenge is to change the student culture so students will stop volunteering to be hazed and immediately report any hazing incidents they witness.

Gov. Rick Scott and Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi have worked together to appoint Angela B. Corey (of the 4th Judicial Circuit) as the newly assigned state attorney in the investigation into the death of Trayvon Martin.

The governor and attorney general reached out to State Attorney Norman Wolfinger and spoke to her about the Martin incident. After the conversation, Wolfinger decided to step down from this investigation and turn it over to another state attorney.

Scott also announced the formation of a task force which will convene following the conclusion of the investigation by Corey.


"As law enforcement investigates the death of Trayvon Martin, Floridians and others around the country have rightly recognized this as a terrible tragedy. Like all Floridians, I believe we must take steps to ensure tragedies like this are avoided," Scott said.

Scott's Task Force on Citizen Safety and Protection will be chaired by Lieutenant Governor Jennifer Carroll.

"The Task Force will hold public hearings, take testimony, solicit ideas and review all matters related to the rights of all Floridians to feel safe and secure in our state," Scott said. "As we exercise our right to be free and secure both in public and in the privacy of our own homes it is important that we have an open and honest discussion on these issues so that we might help avoid such tragedies in the future."

Photo: Deveron Brown, a Tallahassee defense attorney, speaks to the Florida governor about the Martin incident.

A lawsuit that attorney Christopher Chestnut filed on behalf of Robert Champion’s parents claims Fabulous Coach Lines driver Wendy Millette stood guard outside the bus on which their son was being hazed.

But Marching 100 member Keon Hollis, who told ESPN that he walked onto the bus with Robert and stayed there until the two of them had successfully completed a hazing ritual, says there were no adults near the vehicle.

“Hollis says no adults were around,” ESPN investigative reporter Mike Fish wrote.


According to the Champion family’s lawsuit, Millette “encouraged passengers on Bus C to engage in hazing rituals with the full knowledge and express or implied consent/permission of the Defendant Fabulous Couch."

The lawsuit also claims that: “Defendant Millette was standing ‘guard’ at the door of the bus to monitor ingress and egress to Bus C. Defendant Millette, upon seeing the injured decedent, ignored the apparent health risks of (Champion) vomiting…Defendant Millette advised (Champion) that he would be alright as she forced him back on the bus.”

Champion’s parents say Robert was "subjected to additional physical punishment" after being “forced” back on the bus.

The Champions have not answered press questions about how Millette actually “forced” the victim back on board. Robert Champion weighed 235 pounds and was more than six feet tall.

Hollis says that after he and Robert finished the Bus C ritual, Robert asked him for something to drink.

“He said ‘you got something to drink,’” Hollis recalled. “And I gave him some, I believe it was water, and he drunk the water. And then after that, I got off the bus and I left. I walked back to the room. And that was the last time that I talked to him.”

Hollis did not mention anything about Millette "standing guard" outside or monitoring “ingress and egress to Bus C.”

In December, Fabulous Coach Lines owner Ray Land told the Associated Press that the bus driver was outside assisting the band members who were unloading instruments when Champion collapsed on the vehicle. He says she and the rest of the drivers did everything they could to help after they learned that the drum major was hurt.

ESPN investigative reporter Mike Fish says former FAMU Director of Bands Julian E. White told ESPN he had never heard of the “Crossing Bus C” hazing ritual before Nov. 19th. That was the evening that drum major Robert Champion died after being subjected to the brutal rite of passage. Medical examiners ruled Champion’s death a homicide.

Marching 100 member Keon Hollis, a drum major who also went through the “Crossing Bus C” initiation on Nov. 19th, says he met with White on Nov. 20 and told him what had happened the night of Champion’s death. Hollis' description of White's response suggests that the ex-band director knew the "Crossing Bus C" ritual had a long history in the Marching 100.

ESPN has posted video segments of Hollis and White's interviews.

Excerpts from Fish’s report are available after the jump.


According to Fish's story:

White, who has spent 50 years with the band as a student through his latest position as band director and chairman of the music department, told "Outside the Lines" in the presence of his attorney that he was unaware -- until that night -- of the brutal hazing ritual as well as all the inner workings of the band's secret society of unsanctioned subgroups -- claims that ring hollow with some current and former members. Now on paid administrative leave, he is driven to retain his job with the band while portraying the university president as soft on hazing and blaming those under his tutelage with paying only lip service to his warnings about longtime band rituals.

White swears he had never heard of the Bus C ritual. He claims no knowledge of Keon Hollis having crossed Bus C alongside Robert Champion, adding "I haven't talked with him, and he hasn't told me that."

Hollis, in a separate interview with "Outside the Lines," says he and the other drum majors met with White the next day in Orlando and detailed what had transpired on Bus C. He described White as having been told "everything."

After White huddled with the drum majors, Hollis says, "He kind of understood what happened. Bus C is something that's old. It's something that's been going on for a long time. And I remember him saying, 'I thought it had stopped? I thought it was over? Why are people still doing it?' So at that point he pretty much knew that it was about to be a lot of controversy going on as far as with the band and the school."

The focus on academic training in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) has become a priority in higher education as the workforce demands for college graduates in these fields continues to grow nationwide. FAMU will proactively address ways to increase innovation and national competitiveness through STEM programs by hosting the sixth biennial Education and Science Forum on March 26-28, 2012.

The university is expecting nearly 300 people from across the U.S. to attend this education and science conference.


FAMU President James H. Ammons, City of Tallahassee Mayor John Marks, U.S. Senator Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), U.S. Representative Steve Southerland (R-Fla.), and Florida Representative Michelle Vasilinda (D-Tallahassee) will attend the opening plenary session on March 26 at 9 a.m. The keynote speaker from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) will be Dr. Paul Sandifer, senior science advisor to the NOAA administrator.

NOAA is the principal sponsor of this STEM focused forum.

“It is an honor to host the NOAA conference on campus,” Ammons said. “Florida A&M University has a commitment to producing tomorrow’s leaders in science and technology. This is a unique opportunity for the academic community to collaborate with leaders in the public and private sectors who are actively engaged in closing the gap in STEM education and research.”

According to Dr. Michael Abazinge, interim dean of the School of the Environment and director of the Environmental Cooperative Science Center (ECSC), the focus of the conference is four-fold:

-Provide a venue for exchanging results of collaborative research between NOAA and the academic community and discussing new engagement opportunities.
-Expand academic training in science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines through partnership activities (with NOAA scientists, academia and private and public sectors.
-Explore and expand future career opportunities for STEM graduates in the public, private and academic sectors.
-Highlight professional careers in the public, private and academic sectors.

“The real thrust of this conference is to increase and develop the STEM talent by creating a more diverse scientific workforce that directly supports NOAA’s mission and increases opportunities for innovation and U.S. global competitiveness,” said Abazinge.

Bill Jennings’ increasingly desperate efforts to drum up a reason to get rid of FAMU President James H. Ammons have suffered another setback.

On March 9, the Florida auditor general announced the results of Ammons' fourth financial statement audit. Once again, there were no findings.

The audit covered the fiscal year that began on July 1, 2010 and ended June 30, 2011.

“Our audit disclosed that the University’s basic financial statements were presented fairly, in all material respects, in accordance with prescribed financial reporting standards,” Florida Auditor General David W. Martin wrote in the report. “The results of our tests disclosed no instances of noncompliance or other matters that are required to be reported under Government Auditing Standards issued by the Comptroller General of the United States.”

The audit results are good news for the university but bad news for Jennings’ personal power struggle against the FAMU president.

Jennings protégé Richard Dent had been trying to make an issue of the university’s finances before he finally bailed from the Board of Trustees weeks ago. But the state auditors still say that FAMU’s financial statements are clean.

The FAMU Student Government Association (SGA) will host the State of the Black Student Summit on Sunday, March 18 at 6 p.m. The summit will bring together a diverse group of national leaders in business, academia, media and education to discuss major domestic and global issues affecting America’s students.

Grammy Award-winning recording artist and philanthropist John Legend will keynote this event, which includes a discussion and interactive session with the following panelists:

Omar Tyree, New York Times best-selling author and entrepreneur;
Carmen Wong Ulrich, MSNBC and CNN contributor;
Marc Lamont Hill, author, professor and television host;
Jaquelyn Del Rosario, notable marriage counselor;
Eve Wright, vice president and associate general counsel for the Miami Heat
Marc Williams, sports marketing pioneer and pop culture expert; and
Devin T. Robinson X aka “Egypt,” actor and activist

The goal of the summit is to raise awareness about national and global issues that directly affect minority communities. It will also challenge students to think critically and give them the unique opportunity to exchange ideas with some of the greatest minds of their generation.

Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger (pictured) says the investigation into Robert Champion’s homicide is “very near” the final stage. The Orange County Sheriff’s Office and FDLE will soon submit their report to the district attorney for the Ninth Judicial Circuit.

Ken Lewis of the Orange County District Attorney’s office will lead the prosecution team.

Detectives have interviewed more than 50 witnesses in connection with the case.

Champion, a drum major in the Marching 100, died on November 19 in Orlando as the result of injuries he sustained in a hazing incident that took place after the Florida Classic. The assault took place aboard a bus parked at the Rosen Plaza Hotel.

FAMU President James H. Ammons has announced several changes to the university's senior administration.

“I have made major changes in my administration and have assigned members of my executive leadership team to areas where their skills and experience are needed the most,” Ammons said.

Larry Robinson, special assistant to the president, will assume the position of provost and vice president for Academic Affairs. Cynthia Hughes Harris, who has served as provost since Jan. 3, 2008, will assume the position of dean of the School of Allied Health Sciences. Barbara Mosley, who is currently dean of the School of Allied Health Sciences, will be reassigned to the position of associate dean in the school. In addition, Atty. Avery McKnight has been promoted to vice president for Legal Affairs and General Counsel and will acquire the departments of Risk Management, Labor Relations and Equal Opportunity Programs.


Robinson, who served as provost from 2003-2005, served briefly as chief operating officer in 2007, and also served as vice president for Research during President Ammons’ administration. He took a leave of absence from the university from May 2010 to November 2011 in order to serve as assistant secretary for Commerce for Conservation and Management at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

“I want to thank Dr. Hughes Harris for what she has accomplished during her tenure as provost,” said Ammons. “Under her leadership, we are closer to meeting our goals for Academic Affairs as outlined in our strategic plan.”

During Harris’ tenure as provost, she was responsible for establishing three new bachelor’s degree programs and four master’s degree programs. Under her administration, she established several certification programs, the STEM learning communities and FAMU’s first ever online degree programs. As provost, she also coordinated the academic restructuring of the university. During her tenure as dean of Allied Health Sciences, enrollment increased significantly in the school. Harris implemented the doctor of physical therapy, the master’s in occupational therapy and the bachelor’s in health science. While she served as dean, she also was the principal investigator for multiple grants, receiving funding from the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Health and Human Services and the State of Florida.

A team of faculty and administrators from the FAMU College of Education is visiting the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) this week to establish a new partnership. The team will meet with UCSB faculty, administrators and students to consider opportunities for collaboration between the two institutions and continue to lay the foundation for a Summer Research and Graduate Admission Pathways Program: the UCSB–FAMU Educational Evaluation Research Scholars Program.

The visit, hosted by the UC Educational Evaluation Center (UCEC), is being funded by the UC Office of the President’s UC–HBCU Initiative.


FAMU visiting team is comprised of Patricia Green-Powell, Charles Ervin, Endya Stewart, and Mark Howse. Green-Powell is currently the associate dean of Student Services and associate professor for the College of Education, Department of Educational Leadership. Ervin is associate professor and former chair (2006-2009) of the Department of Secondary Education and Foundations in the College of Education. Stewart is an associate professor of Secondary Education and Foundations and a research associate for the Data Use Research Institute, Teachers for a New Era. Howse is the associate dean of Assessment and Accountability for the College of Education.

“Connecting Networks: UCSB and FAMU” supports academic and co-curricular activities designed to train students in educational evaluation, prepare them for doctoral work, and encourage them to consider a UC graduate program by exposing them to the many opportunities and networks the UC has to offer. This program was one of only eleven proposals funded by the UC Office of the President’s University of California–Historically Black Colleges and Universities Initiative (UC–HBCU) in 2011. John T. Yun, director, and Patricia Marin, associate director of the UC Educational Evaluation Center, serve as the co-principal investigators for this program.

The University of California Educational Evaluation Center utilizes the system-wide expertise of nationally-recognized scholars to address educational problems through the rigorous evaluation of potential educational solutions. Through these evaluations, the UCEC contributes to the knowledge base of effective policies and practices (PK–20 and beyond) with the goal of improving data use and decision-making. The combined experience of the UCEC Site Directors offers content and methodological expertise to successfully conduct national, state, and local educational evaluations, as well as provide training to those seeking to develop evaluation expertise.

Tanaga A. Boozer, director of FAMU's Office of Technology Transfer Licensing and Commercialization (OTTLC), has been awarded a U.S. Patent (U.S. 8,117,131 B2) titled “Distributed Technology Transfer Department.” The system, also known as the Virtual Technology Transfer Office (VTTO), is a web-based system designed to substantially reduce the cost of running a small technology transfer office.

Two National Science Foundation grants — Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Partnership for Innovation — and a Technology Commercialization Grant from the Leon County Research Authority supported the VTTO project.

“I was elated when I saw the patent because this marks the beginning of a new era of obtaining affordable patent and technology transfer services,” said Boozer. “For universities, small businesses and independent inventors, the VTTO is a practical solution to patenting, marketing and licensing new products. The most important thing to note about the VTTO is that it was designed to ensure that the innovations developed by HBCU [historically black colleges and universities] inventors and creators are properly attributed and have the greatest chance of being commercialized.”


K. Ken Redda, professor and acting vice president for Research said, “I congratulate Ms. Boozer for developing this exciting Virtual Technology Transfer Office system. I believe this system will substantially enhance the process of bringing new discoveries and inventions to the marketplace.”

Ken Tolson, who was appointed by U.S. President Barack Obama as a member of his board of advisors on historically black colleges and universities, stated that he is optimistic about Boozer’s invention. Tolson chair's the board's first-ever committee on science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

“Ms. Boozer has created an opportunity for HBCUs to build capacity and infrastructure as it relates to technology transfer and commercialization,” said Tolson. “In essence, her tool will help increase the presence of HBCUs on the Milken index, increase the technology partnerships with majority schools and ultimately answer the President's call for increased opportunities for HBCUs in the areas of STEM and technology transfer. Kudos to Ms. Boozer for having the vision to see it through.”

Even though the Florida Legislature expects FAMU to receive most of its 2012-2013 operating funds from tuition and fees, that is unlikely to happen.

FAMU is slated to receive a total of $65.5M in general revenue for 2012-2013. The legislature projects that the university will bring in $72M in tuition and fees.

The legislature’s tuition and fee projections are unrealistic. Each year, the legislature bases its tuition and fee estimates on the bogus assumption that every university student will take a full course load.

The legislature projected that FAMU would generate $57M in tuition and fees for the fiscal year ending (FYE) 2010. FAMU actually collected $11M less than that figure for a total of $46M.


Even though the legislature continues to use projections that are out-of-touch with reality, FAMU has had the highest lower division course load average among the ten traditional State University System of Florida (SUS) schools for the past three years. FAMU’s freshmen and sophomores averaged 14.0 credit hours in Fall 2008, 14.0 in Fall 2009, and 13.9 in Fall 2010.

Currently, the only SUS institution that is beating FAMU’s lower division course load average is New College of Florida. It is a non-traditional liberal arts college that provides individualized written evaluations instead of letter grades. NCF also has the lowest tuition in the entire SUS.

Legislative tuition/fee projections:
2010: $57,171,795
2009: $52,778,244
2008: $52,367,797
2007: $56,427,269

FAMU’s tuition/fee collections:
2010: $46,096,506
2009: $45,262,162
2008: $39,436,794
2007: $39,255,167

The legislature estimates that FAMU will make $59,607,188 in tuition and fees during FYE 2011 and $64,091,635 during FYE 2012.

Source: FAMU Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) reports.

The FAMU faithful can be proud of their support of Rattler football during the past season.

According to NCAA Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), formerly Division I-AA, the Rattlers drew the eighth highest home attendance in the division.

FAMU took the top spot among Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) teams. The Rattlers had a grand total of 102,000 spectators last season during their four home games. The average of 18,746 represented 73.51 percent of actual capacity.

Jackson State University was the only historically black college or university to top FAMU's attendance. The Tigers averaged 23,730 fans during their six home games.

South Carolina State University (SCSU) was the second-ranked MEAC team. It finished 14th. The Bulldogs averaged 16,460 fans during their five home games.

Telisha Marshall’s parents said their daughter always had dreams of helping others.

“When she was little, she wanted to be a pediatrician,” her mom said with a smile.

On March 3, she moved closer to her dreams when she received a FAMU Distinguished Scholar Award for $56,044 during the 2012 Miami Scholarship and Recruitment Reception in Miami Gardens, Fla.

“I was actually surprised when he called my name,” the 18-year old said. “I was like, ‘Me?’

The reception welcomed more than 100 guests to Miami Carol City Senior High School, where 15 scholarships were distributed. Recruiters from the university’s colleges and schools presented details on their exciting programs, and FAMU Vice President for Student Affairs William Hudson Jr. shared his personal story with the audience.


“Attending FAMU was the best decision I made in my life,” said Hudson, a FAMU graduate. “To be the best, you have to want to be the best. You have to make sacrifices. What FAMU taught me is if you persevere, you will succeed. I was never the smartest person in my class, I just worked hard. FAMU has many people who have many stories.”

Shadae Tomlinson is looking forward to filling the pages in her book. She received a George W. Gore Scholarship for $8,000 during the reception.

“When my name was called, it kind of caught me off guard,” said Tomlinson, who plans to major in nursing. “I am honored and really appreciate this scholarship.”

Hudson, who also awarded scholarships in Broward County that same day, told the students that FAMU is a place where each of them will have the opportunity to discover what they can become.

CertusBank has hired FAMU alumna Shonalee A. Gamble to lead its Columbus, Ga. market. She joins the company from CB&T in Columbus, Ga., where she served as a private client services senior relationship manager and financial consultant since December 2003.

In her new role, Gamble will carry the title of senior vice-president. She brings extensive experience in business development, commercial lending, asset management and regulatory compliance to her new position.

Gamble is a graduate of FAMU and the Stonier Graduate School of Banking at the University of Pennsylvania.

CertusBank, N.A., is a subsidiary of CertusHoldings, Inc. (formerly Blue Ridge Holdings, Inc.) and has $1.8 billion in assets, 30 branch locations, and three operations centers and offices in South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia and Northern Florida.

The No.2 seed Norfolk State Spartans defeated the Rattlers 58-46 in the semifinal round of the 2012 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Basketball Tournament.

Coach Clemon Johnson's team performed much better than anybody expected, and went farther than any Rattler basketball team has since the 2007 team won the MEAC title. "We had a good game plan and a great scouting report. We were able to contain the player of the year, it's just that other people were able to get to the basket and we just came up short," Johnson said.

Amin Stevens was the game’s high scorer with 20 points on 9-of-14 shooting, including 2-of-3 from the three-point arc. He also grabbed 11 rebounds for a double-double. He was the only Rattler to score in double figures as eight other Rattlers were able to score. As a team, the Rattlers committed 19 turnovers.

MEAC Player of the Year, Kyle O'Quinn, scored 13 points on 5-of-10 shooting to lead the Spartans. He had to earn every point as FAMU's Yannick Crowder blocked five shots, including a couple from O'Quinn. Crowder dedicated his game to preventing O'Quinn from taking over the game and the plan had considerable success. The pressure from the duo of Crowder and Nate Drayton forced him to be a facilitator of the ball as there was virtually no place to go inside.

The Lady Bison advanced to the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) championship game with a 51-43 victory over the Lady Rattlers.

Head Coach LeDawn Gibson felt her team failed to get in sync during the first half.

"We just told everybody to just stay together and just keep plugging at them one basket at a time. We had a goal of going in at halftime down by just 10 points or less. We kept chipping away" Gibson said.

"In the end, Antonia Bennett and Qiana Donald's foul trouble escalated the problems. I don't think we played as aggressive without Bennett and Donald," she added.

Jasmine Grice led the Lady Rattlers with 14 points on 5-of-18 shooting from the field. In one crucial stretch as FAMU was clawing its way back into the game, Grice scored five straight points. Donald and Bennett would finish with 13 points each. With the Lady Rattlers' usual balanced scoring attack, only four players scored in this game. Jamie Foreman led the Lady Rattlers on the board with 11 on the day.

The Rattlers (10-22) defeated the No. 3 seed Delaware State Hornets (15-14) in overtime to advance to the semifinal round of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) basketball tournament.

FAMU entered the championship competition at the No. 11 seed and knocked off the No. 4 seed Coppin State earlier this week.

Head Coach Clemon Johnson was happy about the victory, but more excited that the Rattlers have learned to depend on one another.

"It was a very exciting game," Johnson said. "At this stage, any game you can win is a great game. I'm honored to be here and honored to still be playing. No one expected us to be here. We gave away three at the house to end the season, but now we're on the road and thanks to our Lord and savior and the teammates, they've come together as a team," Johnson said.

The Rattlers were led by Amin Stevens who went 7-of-16 to score 16 points. He added eight rebounds on the night to tie Yannick Crowder, who also grabbed eight. Crowder also five blocked shots, which deterred the Hornets from driving inside and forced them to play an outside game.

The Rattlers will face the No. 2 seed Norfolk State Spartans in the semifinal round tonight at 8 p.m.

Tameka McKelton scored on an inbounds play under her basket with four seconds remaining to give FAMU a hard-fought 50-48 win over the University of Maryland Eastern Shore in the quarterfinal round of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Women’s Basketball Tournament.

“That was the first time that we have run that play all year,” said FAMU Head Coach LaDawn Gibson, the MEAC Coach of the Year. “

The No. 3 Lady Rattlers (22-7) will take on No. 2 Howard in the semifinals on Friday at 2:30 p.m.

FAMU and Howard ended the season as regular season co-runners-up in the conference. The Lady Bison defeated the Lady Rattlers, 68-61 in Washington, DC in a matchup on February 11th that snapped FAMU win streak.

“It should be another great game,” Gibson predicted. “Howard is a great team. We will have to correct the things that we did not do well in that game.”

FAMU alumnus Virgil A. Miller, chief of staff for Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La., will keynote his alma mater's honors convocation on March 22, 2012.

Richmond's district includes the entire city of New Orleans. In a recent interview with the Washington Post, Miller said the Congressional is focused on helping families that have been hurt by Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil spill.

"How can we take this set-back and make it a set-up for success? How can we get money for disaster preparedness to our parishes? How can we increase credit availability for local small business," Miller said.

Miller was selected by Richmond in January 2011 after working with Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) on the Committee on Energy and Commerce, the oldest standing legislative committee in the U.S. House of Representatives. As health policy advisor to Dingell, Miller played a key role in securing passage of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, which granted the Food and Drug Administration the authority to regulate tobacco products. He also helped secure passage of the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, which improved safety regulations for both domestic and foreign food suppliers.


Prior to joining Dingell’s staff, Miller worked as a Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Louis Stokes Fellow in the office of U.S. Representative Edolphus Towns (D-NY). Several congressional leaders and public health organizations have recognized his legislative and advocacy work on healthcare reform, Medicare/Medicaid policy, medical product safety, and health disparity issues.

When he is not working on Capitol Hill, Miller devotes his time to fundraising for breast cancer research and prevention through the Susan G. Komen for the Cure; speaking to youth through programs like World Vision and NAACP Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological, and Scientific Olympics (NAACP ACT-SO); and working with Young Alumni Giving (YAG), a networking organization he helped start to cultivate the next generation of leaders for FAMU.

Miller is a native of West Palm Beach, Fla. He earned his B.S. in biology and a master of public health from FAMU. His career in politics began while attending FAMU, as the student body president and an intern for then state Rep. Curtis Richardson (D-Fla.).