According to Rattler Nation, the nearly $13 million budget for the college was removed from FAMU’s general operating revenue in the state budget and moved to a sovereign line, the oversight of which is now under FSU’s authority. FAMU has controlled the joint college’s budget since 1987. Meeting minutes from a June 3 meeting of Florida State’s Board of Trustees confirms the switch.
Some theorized that the budget authority was being exchanged for the school’s deanship, which has been held by FSU’s Dr. Yaw Yeboah since 2012; however, upon his resignation July 31, he will be succeeded by FSU Associate Provost Bruce Locke. The tenure home of the deanship was to transfer to FAMU following Yaw’s resignation.
Current FSU President John Thrasher reportedly claimed FAMU agreed that FSU should take control of the FAMU-FSU COE budget, a change which went into effect July 1; however, a review of the published minutes of recent meetings of the FAMU Board of Trustees confirms that the board never met to approve any of the changes to the college’s operations.
Thrasher, as state senator last year, supported a split of the engineering school into two separate programs housed independently at the two colleges. Proponents of the plan asserted that sharing the college with FAMU was hurting FSU’s chances of becoming a world-class research institution. However, splitting the schools would likely be a violation of both Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act ― which protects against discrimination on the basis of race in higher ed and other institutions receiving federal funds ― and the Fordice ruling, which said states had not taken enough care to desegregate schools and ordered affirmative action toward this end.
Though it was reported at the time that Thrasher said he believed the split would be beneficial for both universities, the numbers suggest a different story.
In the years between 2004 and 2014, enrollment of FAMU students steadily decreased, except for one peak year over the 2010-11 school year. In the undergraduate program, enrollment of FAMU fell from 582 to 321 students over that timeframe, while the number of students enrolled at the graduate level halved, decreasing from 56 to 24. Conversely, enrollment of FSU students increased over the same frame, from 801 to 1109 undergraduates and 228 to 246 graduate students.
