Attitude Reflect(s) Leadership

Castell V. Bryant was interim president at my school, Florida A&M University, for about two years. She quit in May, less than two months before our 10th president, James Ammons, was to arrive. That move I didn't understand - how do you weather the storm for 2 years and quit right before your time expires anyway?

Unsurprisingly, she is a bitter cookie and has gone on to blast FAMU, her alma matter, in an interview in the St. Petersburg Times, excerpts of which can be viewed on the Tallahasse Democrat Web site, www.tdo.com.

As a senior, I can admit that I am not graduating with overwhelming nostalgia in my heart. FAMU has been a four-year headache brought on largely by administrative issues, so to hear the interim president, the top administrator, lambasting her institution in the media is just disgraceful to herself, first and foremost. Basically, she did not successfully complete the task she was selected to do - and she is upset? What about us? The students she was supposed to serve. Here's what she thinks about her constituents:

"I'll give FAMU students a two." (On a scale of 1-4, with 4 being the best) "But that's awful because we accept them and we could help more be successful."

So... while you do place some of the blame on the school itself, you are basically saying FAMU accepts raggedy students. LET'S KEEP IT FUNKY: I might actually agree there is some truth at the bottom of that mess she said. I can attest to being disappointed at times in the caliber of students on campus. But I have consistently been disgusted and appalled by the leadership of the University. The stank employees to the disorganized administrators and some pompous, inaccessible faculty members. Every single solitary semester, I have financial problems. Every year, the housing office gives me the flux. Every year, there is a problem with the dispensation of football season tickets, or homecoming activity tickets, or more and more clubs are being asked to do more with less. They want my beloved student newspaper to increase from running 3 times a week to 5, but they cut our budget so drastically that I and many overworked student-journalists no longer know where our income will come from next semester.
You read the headlines this year, when campus employees (Students, professors and others) went an entire semester and longer without receiving paychecks from FAMU.

-Reflect a moment on an exchange between the quarterback and Julius in "Remember the Titans," where linebacker Bertier was upset at Julius for not begging the other players to pay attention to the Bertier's leadership: "ATTITUDE REFLECT LEADERSHIP."-

So the leader of our University for the past two years leaves her post, raggedy and half-run, with a horrible attitude and turns on the students. You give the students a two, Castell? In 1997, U.S. News and World Report named FAMU College of the Year. We recruited the highest number of National Merit Finalists, more than Ivy League schools. Florida A&M University is the No.1 producer of black baccalaureates in this country. Just last year, Black Enterprise mag named us the No.1 school in the country for black students.

But let's understand that underneath stats and facts lie people. People like me. Let me tell you what I am not, nor could ever be: a 2 - and neither are the students whose company I keep. FAMU recruited me, 3 years ago, when I was a national merit finalist in the top 10 percent of my high school class with a near-perfect GPA and four AP classes. FAMU begged for me to look at them, so how can I be a 2? Howard University offered me a full ride, and I was accepted and offered scholarships to Michigan State University and the University of Michigan. I was not even in MSU and was awarded a scholarship to study abroad...but I accepted FAMU's offer. And I'm a 2? How so, when I have continued to excel?

Last summer 600 students applied to a national law school prep program at FSU and 40 were chosen...including me. This summer, The New York Times selected 30 of the best student journalists in the country to be reporters in New Orleans, and I was one of them. Right now, I am one of 30 students selected from more than 400 national applicants to receive a paid media-industry internship in New York. This year, I won a Hearst college journalism award (aka the "College Pulitzer prize") and a Society of Professional Journalists Regional Mark of Excellence Award. Another student at FAMU won THREE Hearst Awards in one year!

But Castell gives FAMU students a 2 out of 4??? Girlfriend, please count these last two years as the greatest failure of your life, for you failed to walk among the 13,000 beautiful black students you were asked to serve and recognize our greatness.