Tallahassee or not? (Miami, Tampa, Iona: transfer, live, young professionals)

[dadeguy]

what these nice folks are saying between the lines is that FAMU is a predominantly black school. I would also agree with other posters here that FAMU is not the best choice for any university level course.

If I were you I'd be looking to miami or ft lauderdale rather than north florida.

[ajscratch]

FAMU is cursed. Burn it to the ground and start over. Fire the whole staff. The culture there is hopelessly corrupt.

Again, if you are referring to the administration and some of the previous leaders I won't argue. However, don't go in circles if you're trying to dissuade this woman from attending an institution because of the composition of the student body, then get all sensitive when someone uses "redneck" to express how they feel about a place. 'Dadeguy' put it succinctly and I appreciate that.

[Strel]

Originally Posted by dadeguy

what these nice folks are saying between the lines is that FAMU is a predominantly black school. I would also agree with other posters here that FAMU is not the best choice for any university level course.

If I were you I'd be looking to miami or ft lauderdale rather than north florida.

Which only makes it that much more of a shame that it is so badly run, and has been so badly run for so long.

[Strel]

Originally Posted by ajscratch

Again, if you are referring to the administration and some of the previous leaders I won't argue. However, don't go in circles if you're trying to dissuade this woman from attending an institution because of the composition of the student body, then get all sensitive when someone uses "redneck" to express how they feel about a place. 'Dadeguy' put it succinctly and I appreciate that.

Except that his observation was an opinion, and not a particularly valid one.

FAMU's bad track record is a matter of public knowledge.

[Strel]

Originally Posted by dadeguy

what these nice folks are saying between the lines is that FAMU is a predominantly black school. I would also agree with other posters here that FAMU is not the best choice for any university level course.

If I were you I'd be looking to miami or ft lauderdale rather than north florida.

That is not what I am saying "between the lines." I am saying precisely what I mean, and I would appreciate it if you did not assume otherwise.

[TriMT7]

Originally Posted by ajscratch

Again, if you are referring to the administration and some of the previous leaders I won't argue. However, don't go in circles if you're trying to dissuade this woman from attending an institution because of the composition of the student body, then get all sensitive when someone uses "redneck" to express how they feel about a place. 'Dadeguy' put it succinctly and I appreciate that.

Please take the race card, and put it back in your deck.

FAMU's student body composition has nothing to do with why the OP might not and probably should not go to FAMU. What IS wrong with FAMU is the well known (throughout Tallahassee) for problems with mismanagement, corruption, etc... and let's be honest -- a not exactly stellar academic reputation. What significant research is performed at FAMU? Maybe if you're going to study social science, or history... fine... but... what about everyone else?

And so, if you have subpar academics in a systemically problemed school, once you strip away the intangible benefit of having a historically black college experience as a black person, what is left in terms of benefits for an Italian student looking to get an American college experience? Wouldn't that best be spent on a more diverse campus, like FSU?

[Strel]

Originally Posted by TriMT7

Please take the race card, and put it back in your deck.

FAMU's student body composition has nothing to do with why the OP might not and probably should not go to FAMU. What IS wrong with FAMU is the well known (throughout Tallahassee) for problems with mismanagement, corruption, etc... and let's be honest -- a not exactly stellar academic reputation. What significant research is performed at FAMU? Maybe if you're going to study social science, or history... fine... but... what about everyone else?

And so, if you have subpar academics in a systemically problemed school, once you strip away the intangible benefit of having a historically black college experience as a black person, what is left in terms of benefits for an Italian student looking to get an American college experience? Wouldn't that best be spent on a more diverse campus, like FSU?

Really. It's not like FAMU hasn't had the very same problems, over and over again, for over 20 years. Every once in a while, they bring in a new person who is going to "change things." Some of these people are earnest (Like Castell Bryant...who I know personally) but powerless to change a situation that is chronic and infects FAMU to the core. Others talk a lot but won't change anything.

For twenty+ years no real improvement has been accomplished with FAMU, and part of the reason is that every time someone tries to clean it up, someone else comes along and plays the race card just as was done in this thread. Then it becomes politically risky to actually DO anything (like the mass staff and faculty firings that desperately need to happen)...and so nothing gets done, and the problems continue ad infinitum.

No "non-black" university would have been given so many chances, or permitted to be so bad for so long.

[JonSch7]

I am going to have to agree about FAMU. Just look at the recent problems since Ammons has come aboard. Students arrested for hacking into the school's grading system, students not being able to get financial aid on time, non-students getting arrest on campus.

FAMU has monstorous potential, it just needs to be started from the ground up. The school isn't as prestigious as it used to be.

[Strel]

The students deserve better.

I know someone that worked for KPMG when they were consulting with FAMU during Bryant's administration. One of the things they discovered was massive timesheet fraud, and even false positions/people being paid for two jobs/being paid to do essentially nothing.

One payday the KPMG people had an idea. All direct deposits were stopped, and all FAMU employees had to come to a ballroom to pick up their checks. To get their check, they had to sign an affidavit stating under oath that they did in fact do that work and for that many hours. My suggestion, which they followed, was to place uniformed police officers in the room as well (after all, there was a lot of checks there).


I don't remember the numbers, but a funny thing happened that day. I sizeable percentage of the FAM workforce declined to pick up their checks when asked to sign the affidavit. Some of them even disappeared and never returned to work.

Now what does that tell you?


FIRE THEM ALL AND START OVER.

[BronxbornGuy]

Lived in Gainesville for a couple of years and left. I was kinda sorry I did. But now I am reallly interested in Tallahassee and have been for quite a few years already. I live in the western USA. I am planning to go FSU if I get into a doctoral program there.