DeVoe Moore: FAMU should seize this opportunity

DeVoe Moore: FAMU should seize this opportunity

"When looking at Florida A&M and Florida State, they are two different universities, different in size and resources, which make each far from equal participants at the College of Engineering.
For this reason, why would FAMU not take this opportunity to capitalize, proving that it can be successful within its community and the state of Florida by establishing an engineering school that could help bring the university to a higher level?
This is an opportunity FAMU should take advantage of, capitalizing by raising its standards and showing that it can achieve this goal on its own. Surely, FAMU has learned and gained knowledge from the past, improving its position in future cases, unlike 50 years ago when FAMU lost its law school.
The FAMU Board of Trustees hired a new president, Elmira Mangum, at a salary of $450,000, with an enrollment of 11,000 students. The FSU board was paying Eric Barron $406,000 with an enrollment of 41,000 students. As a new president, Mangum has the advantage and opportunity to review and and inspect each department and its budget, making adjustments if needed in the financial structure of each department to show legislators the willingness to re-structure FAMU’s financial positions to keep an engineering school for its students — if, in fact, an engineering school is in its best interests without the help of FSU.
In splitting the College of Engineering, I believe, one can dismiss the influences of race and intelligence coming from the legislators, as Bill Proctor has implied.
Proctor has been one of my favorite members of the Leon County Commission. He generally votes for the concerns of Leon County, regardless of what he says before the votes. Proctor and I enjoy each other’s company when we meet at any occasion. I hope what I am going to say will not change our friendship.
The My View that Proctor wrote on April 17 (“Senate displays a dim view of black students”) only talks of racists or racism without showing any signs of discrimination or the persecution of anyone. Slavery and share-cropping along with Gov. George Wallace and the days of Jim Crow are gone, except in the minds of a few who want to remind the public that racism was a problem in our past.

I don’t see racism or racists on the campus at FSU, but I do see 9.4 percent blacks enrolled at FSU, while university statistics show that whites make up only 67.2 percent. I do see different colors, black and white, walking to and from class, sometimes holding hands. The other night, my wife and I attended a basketball banquet at FSU, and I observed black student-athletes who chose to have by their side white dates, dressed-up for a very nice banquet.
Commissioner Proctor should look at the training and discipline that these young black men receive from their hard work and their coaches.
He also needs to look at the graduation rate of those young men and at the training that allows them to go with a pro team, making millions of dollars from their hard work. The success rate of those so-called black servants under their coaches would probably beat any other group of young black men in our country.
Basketball Coach Leonard Hamilton has a well-disciplined group of young basketball players, and he is one of those well-paid coaches Proctor is talking about. Football Coach Jimbo Fisher has raised the standard of his players. Baseball Coach Mike Martin has done extremely well with his players.
I would say it is worth every minute that these players spend with their coaches, because these well-paid coaches turn out well-disciplined men who have the ability to be successful from their hard work."