FAMU-FSU working toward engineering school fixes

blah blah blah.  Anyone in Tally knows FAMU won't change a thing, their solution is give us more money and that is all they will agree to.

FAMU tries the same things over and over again and expects change....there will be no change.




FAMU President Elmira Mangum laid out the school’s College of Engineering legislative budget priorities at Friday meeting


Florida A&M University trustees were unanimous Friday in their desire to keep a joint engineering school shared with Florida State University but looked toward funding as a way to address the issues associated with a call to split it last year.
The inequity in funding of the two universities that has been in place since the school’s inception in 1982, from the engineering program all the way down to faculty salaries, is the root of problems addressed in a Jan. 12 Board of Governor’s report, said FAMU President Elmira Mangum.
“Florida A&M has been underfunded and not just in the engineering school,” she told trustees in Jacksonville on Friday. “In order to be the partners Florida State and the Legislature wants us to be, we need additional resources and that will be a priority this year.”
Mangum said included in FAMU’s legislative budget request this year will be $30 million specific to the shared school, $20 million to put toward bring faculty and staff on par with FSU staff and $10 million in non-recurring funds for laboratory upgrades and fellowship programs.
The BOG, as directed by the Legislature, looked at the issues associated with splitting the school putting a $1-billion price tag on the divorce. They will meet Feb. 19 and provide a recommendation to the Legislature during the two-month session starting in March.
Mangum, FSU President John Thrasher and BOG Chairman Marshall Criser met Thursday to discuss moving forward.
Thrasher said earlier this week other issues are being addressed by the two schools and the BOG before looking at the $1 billion proposal to split the school.
We’re working “to see if we can come to some middle ground on issues in the report that involve money,” Thrasher said. “I think it’s going to take some additional resources if we’re going to get the engineering school where it needs to be for us and Florida A&M University.”
Thrasher also addressed the declining number of African-Americans enrolling in the school.
“We’ve got to fix that,” he said.
The joint school, based on enrollment and graduation numbers, is not as successful as other in the state, the report found, largely because of the conflicting missions of the two universities and poor organizational structure.
The current structure, the BOG report says, is focused on saving money and protecting each university without “regard for the impact on student experience and faculty and staff productivity.”
Marketing the program to fit not only the model that FAMU seeks, but the burgeoning need for engineering graduates in Florida is also a priority.
While FSU’s undergrad enrollment in the school has continually increased, FAMU’s has declined. In the 2013-2014 school year, there were 321 FAMU students enrolled matched with 1,109 FSU students.
Graduate enrollment is also disproportionate with 246 FSU grad students last year compared to 24 from FAMU.
College of Engineering Dean Yaw Yeboah told the board that marketing the school as a unified program, pushing for higher passage rates in prerequisite mathematics courses and propping up a four to one faculty ratio in favor of FSU professors will likely result in more FAMU students taking an interest.
Bolstering those issues will result in more appeal for both schools.
“It is true that the program and the enrollment depends on the faculty,” Yeboah said. “It’s good for each university to take the good of the college and to market it.”
Faculty Senate President Bettye Grable said faculty, who work face-to-face with students and leave their mark on the program as a whole, must be a focal point in branding.
“Faculty has a history or reaching and teaching those who are underrepresented,” Grable said. “That is our stock and trade, that is our brand and that can be supported by the faculty who know how to get the job done.”