Scott, Rufus succeed in trampling yet another FAMU anti-hazing panel

Gov. Rick Scott and his go-to trustee Rufus Montgomery chalked up another victory in their ongoing efforts to cause mayhem at FAMU. They have succeeded in tearing down yet another anti-hazing panel. FAMU postponed another anti-hazing task force in December after the governor went on the warpath against it.

Elizabeth Allan, Mary Madden, and David Starnes have all have resigned from the volunteer Anti-Hazing Committee appointed by the Board of Trustees. They join former committee chairman Stephen Craig Robinson and Na’im Akbar, who also submitted letters of resignation.

“Where I believe there is a real need to be a part of such a committee, I do not feel that the FAMU or the Board of Trustees is ready to take this step, as evidence of the roadblocks, which have been presented,” Starnes wrote. “As well, I believe there are members of the committee who are concerned with the ability to have dialogue in a productive manner to achieve the results that we were initially charged to undertake.”

Only two of the original seven committee members remain.

 Back on March 23, FAMU trustees approved the committee’s request to change its mission from policy recommendation to a fact-finding. 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 on March 30 after Scott and Rufus bashed the integrity of the committee members. They both suggested that the committee was trying to operate in secret due to some sort of ulterior motive.

Robinson warned the trustees that he and four of the other committee members would resign if the trustees gave legitimacy to the public attacks against them.

“As Judge Robinson and Dr. Akbar have previously described, the well-intended purpose of
Florida’s sunshine law presents some major challenges in this situation,” Allan and Madden wrote in a joint statement. “While we believe we have much to contribute to the work of this committee, the current constraints are prohibitive, and regretfully, we must submit this resignation.”

FAMU spokeswoman Sharon Saunders told reporters that Trustee Belinda Shannon is working to rebuild the committee.