More Florida A&M Follies

If you ever read the Tallahassee Democrat or check its website, you will frequently read articles about Florida A&M University(FAMU) and some recent episode of malfesience or bungling going on at this school. If it isn't the Football team, its the law school.

Today's News is little different. Professors teaching classes during the summer term are threatening to quit because they haven't received their pay yet. I don't blame them. Just recently it was learned FAMU had a professor on the payroll that was supposedly teaching while he practiced law up in Kentucky. The lawyer/professor in question was a contributor to the school. So what is going on up there?

The full Tallahassee Democrat article can be found at- http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/11976665.htm

Associated Press
ORLANDO, Fla. - As many as 10 professors at Florida A&M University's law school who did not get paid for the first session of summer classes have threatened to stop teaching if they do not receive the salaries they were promised.

Interim dean James M. Douglas said Thursday university officials in Tallahassee thought the summer faculty's salaries were too generous, but provost Larry Robinson had pledged to pay them in full.

Summer instructors were promised about $20,000 each for teaching four credit hours at the Orlando campus, about the same salary as the past two summers, though only about $13,000 each had been set aside, Douglas said.

"I think a lot of it had to do with the processing of paperwork," Robinson said. "A lot of people are working extremely hard to make sure it does not happen again."

Interim President Castell Bryant said FAMU's human resources office notified her earlier this week that it had just received a batch of faculty contracts for the ending summer term. That group likely includes faculty members other than those at the law school.

"That has nothing to do with the computer," Bryant said. "Somebody is not processing paperwork when they're supposed to."

Bryant didn't know yet how many faculty were affected. She said she's working to resolve the problem.

The Tallahassee Democrat reported in late May that an undetermined number of faculty received only partial paychecks for the first summer pay period. Bryant said then that everyone who didn't get paid would get their money within a few days.

FAMU has been under state scrutiny for financial mismanagement since audits cited untimely bank reconciliations, poor accounting practices, deficient check-writing controls and late vendor payments.

The school cut athletic scholarships in every sport and has enforced a spending moratorium on cell phone, travel and other routine expenses.