From
Diverse Online Noteworthy News FAMU
Among Florida Colleges Targeted by Report For Massive Changes This suggested switch
in “We would have to
disagree with any report that would limit For the time being, the
State University System of Florida, or SUS, is merely gathering information
on the proposal, which would dramatically transform the historically Black
university renowned for its pharmacy school and MBA program.
The proposal came from
a study done for SUS’s Board of Governors, a 17-member panel that
oversees the Citing The other institutions
were The Pappas report
singles out these schools because they have significantly more undergraduate
students than graduate students. According to data collected by the Pappas
Consulting Group, FAMU’s student makeup is 87 percent undergraduate and
13 percent graduate. “This is the
beginning of a very big project, but it’s only the beginning of
it,” says board spokesman Bill Edmonds. “What the board of
governors is doing is laying out a master plan for the university system as a
whole for the next 30 years.” The Pappas report
concedes the change will be a hard sell among the six targeted schools. With
the exception of FAMU Provost Debra
Austin agrees with that assessment. She approaches the situation with a
unique perspective, having served as SUS chancellor from 2003 through 2005. “The
recommendations of the Pappas report that any university, particularly
Florida A&M, become a baccalaureate degree institution is not in the best
interests of Florida A&M or the state or the nation,” she says. “We are a large
producer of graduate degrees held by African-American students in the fields
of law, pharmacy, physics and business, among others,” she adds.
“Were this institution not able to offer graduate education, think what
a tremendous loss that would be for the business community or the physics
community, to give two examples.” Resistance from FAMU or
the other schools on the prospective State College System list might be
surmounted through the use of financial incentives, the Pappas report
suggests. The Pappas study was
commissioned with the goal of helping the State University System of Florida
deal with burgeoning student demand, Turning FAMU into a
four-year degree school was one of many potential innovations proposed by the
report. SUS is in the midst of a statewide circuit to get feedback on the
State College System proposal, as well as other suggested innovations in the
study. A recent public meeting
in The board of governors
is not expected to make a decision on the proposal until the latter part of
2007 at the earliest,
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