The FAMU Board of Trustees proved that it cannot be trusted to stand by its word or show any backbone as far as the Anti-Hazing Committee is concerned. The two committee members who resigned were 100 percent justified in their decision.Stephen Craig Robinson (pictured) and Na'im Akbar, recently tendered their resignations from the volunteer panel. Robinson, who was chairing the committee, is a former federal judge. Akbar is a Tallahassee psychologist.
On March 23, FAMU 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.
The board jumped to reverse its decision after Gov. Rick Scott and his go-to trustee at FAMU, Rufus Montgomery, bashed the integrity of the committee members. Scott and Rufus both suggested that the committee was trying to operate in secret due to some sort of ulterior motive.
“I take offense at the notion that people would suggest that I am doing what I am doing to be secretive,” Robinson said before trustees caved in to the governor. “We have our good names and reputations on the line.”
Rufus then shot back by shouting at Robinson and comparing him to a child. Most of the other trustees just sat quietly like spineless “yes-persons” instead of criticizing Rufus for his lack of professionalism.
No one should be shocked about what happened. Rufus has worked slowly but surely to pressure FAMU’s trustees to fall in line with the governor. His rude comments are just part of the Tea Party-nastiness that he and Scott have successfully used to show the FAMU board who’s boss.
FAMU’s board is lucky that any professional men or women are willing to volunteer to assist it. The board has shown that it will let the governor’s office push it around and tell it what do. There is no reason to trust a board that is indecisive and scared.
