Speaker 1: Native Land Pod is a production of iHeartRadio and partnership
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Speaker 1: Welcome Home. Everybody this is They are Tiffany Cross and
Speaker 1: Angela Riot. I'm Andrew Killham. You're tuned into this week's
Speaker 1: mini pod and I wanted to talk about We didn't
Speaker 1: get to talk about it in the general show, but
Speaker 1: my experience right now in Florida and as a graduate
Speaker 1: of fam you really bought this to the top of
Speaker 1: the radar for me, and I know that it's a
Speaker 1: story similar to many other HPCs around the country, and
Speaker 1: that is FAMU right now is in this in the
Speaker 1: hunt for a new permanent president. That process has been
Speaker 1: opened for a while, received candidate applications for it, and
Speaker 1: they've been shortlisted, and there's been lots said about the
Speaker 1: behind the scenes process that has been undertaken by maybe
Speaker 1: certain members of the Board of Trustees to produce a
Speaker 1: certain outcome. In Florida, all conversations about votes about presidential searches,
Speaker 1: they're in public, they're public records, the deliberations they're supposed
Speaker 1: to be done publicly, and so we always find it
Speaker 1: strange when you start hearing rumors of hey, that person's
Speaker 1: already had eight votes, or you know, the other candidates
Speaker 1: they're in there, but there's not a chance because we've
Speaker 1: already picked the one. And it seems that there may
Speaker 1: be some of that Shenanigan playing in this case, and
Speaker 1: I wanted to broaden it out. Yes, we can talk
Speaker 1: specifically about fam you, I know, I'm happy to. But
Speaker 1: the truth is is, nationally we have seen under Republican
Speaker 1: governors across the country in many states, if not if
Speaker 1: they hadn't already had processes where boards of trustees or
Speaker 1: governing boards of an institution are appointed by the governor,
Speaker 1: sometimes boards of education and and and and whatnot. But
Speaker 1: the end result is that it leads to a greater
Speaker 1: politicization of the education system, where you basically get the
Speaker 1: friends of the governor or friends of people in power
Speaker 1: who end up getting named whether or not these people
Speaker 1: are graduates of an institution, whether they have previously been
Speaker 1: supporters of said institution, whether they believe HBCUs should exist
Speaker 1: at all, And in some cases, just as we have
Speaker 1: Betsy Davos at the Department of Education in Washington, d C.
Speaker 2: Someone who does not believe in the She's not there anymore,
Speaker 2: but we had her there.
Speaker 1: The point being, the point I'm trying to make, and
Speaker 1: I appreciate the correction, is that the politicization you put people,
Speaker 1: you're putting foxes over henhouses.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the man is there now and she literally is
Speaker 3: there to abolish the body Slimmit.
Speaker 1: You are absolutely right. I used the Betsy example because
Speaker 1: she's a big, big funder of charters, right, her family,
Speaker 1: her philanthropic giving, all the things that she funds in
Speaker 1: her and her family were toward charter schools and basically
Speaker 1: taking public money and putting it into private institutions. Right.
Speaker 1: But they're putting these positions over the same institutions they're
Speaker 1: supposed to be shepherding, making sure are well resourced. They're
Speaker 1: they're really in there to do a hatchet job. And
Speaker 1: as Tiffany just pointed out, the current Secretary of McMahon
Speaker 1: is it McMahon, Linda McMahon.
Speaker 2: Linda McMahon.
Speaker 1: Yeah, is similarly in the position to destroy the Department
Speaker 1: of Education, to phase it out as a department, even
Speaker 1: though we know Congress would would have to be required
Speaker 1: in order for that to be accomplished. They're bringing well
Speaker 1: it used to be. That's true when they have I
Speaker 1: don't know what the rules.
Speaker 2: Are anymore, and nobody Andrew. She was somewhere, I forget that.
Speaker 3: You all probably saw this clip, and she was somewhere
Speaker 3: talking about a one education and a one education is
Speaker 3: going to be taught in schools, and she supports a
Speaker 3: one education. Do you know what this dizzy, half witted
Speaker 3: idiot was trying to say AI? He was trying to
Speaker 3: say AI and was and said A one numerous times.
Speaker 3: This is the person they put in charge of the
Speaker 3: Department of Education. This is not a serious administration at all.
Speaker 1: Syfany I was about to say she got set up
Speaker 1: by a stafford, but just have.
Speaker 2: To read this an idiot. She's not well versed, she's
Speaker 2: not cultured.
Speaker 1: She's not the point that we need a good education system.
Speaker 3: You almost got to go out your way to not
Speaker 3: know what AI means, like you almost have to, like
Speaker 3: I refuse to read a paper ever to not know
Speaker 3: about the intersection of AI and education.
Speaker 1: Right now, but perusing your speech, you asked somebody what
Speaker 1: is a one right?
Speaker 4: Right?
Speaker 3: If you are confused, you asked, But even if you like,
Speaker 3: if that's something you're used to seeing which is written
Speaker 3: about all the time, like you would see that and
Speaker 3: immediately know it's not calling the DJ does, like you
Speaker 3: know that there was between the made up department and
Speaker 3: the actual Department of Justice. But before you get too
Speaker 3: deep an education, can you just explain to me, like
Speaker 3: you're talking to a five year old, what is the
Speaker 3: deal at am you're.
Speaker 1: Trying to hire a president?
Speaker 2: Okay, and that church the governor appoints.
Speaker 1: No, the butter the governor appoints a board of trustees.
Speaker 1: So if you if you're familiar with and by the way,
Speaker 1: this may not exist everywhere for everybody. Florida a long
Speaker 1: time ago used to have one one board that governed
Speaker 1: all of our state universities. Jeff Bush, when he came in,
Speaker 1: got rid of that one board who acted in the
Speaker 1: interests per se of all of the state's higher education
Speaker 1: institutions public institutions, and he replaced them with individual boards
Speaker 1: of trustees at each college campus. So privates have always
Speaker 1: largely existed this way. Each private school has a board
Speaker 1: of trustees or of governance, but some one who sits
Speaker 1: above the president to the so that the president would
Speaker 1: be accountable to them. That politicization with these appointments coming
Speaker 1: largely from political individuals, have created the circumstance where in
Speaker 1: many instances the boards are not acting in the interest
Speaker 1: of that campus, but are doing the bidding of their appointers.
Speaker 1: So if their appointer is Ron de Santis and Rondo
Speaker 1: Santis has decided that DEI is to be dead in
Speaker 1: the state of Florida, and that any institution who continues
Speaker 1: a policy where they value diversity, equity and inclusion they
Speaker 1: can be if he has the power to remove them
Speaker 1: or not appoint them, reappoint them again. It becomes a
Speaker 1: cudgel over their heads where you either do my bidding
Speaker 1: or you don't do bidding at all. You come off
Speaker 1: the board. You understand what I mean by But how
Speaker 1: would you.
Speaker 2: Even kill DEI.
Speaker 3: At an HBCUs just say again Project twenty twenty five,
Speaker 3: they actually are like that is not one of their targets.
Speaker 3: They actually are okay with hbcs because they're like, yes,
Speaker 3: send black people there. But the funding part, that part
Speaker 3: is something that we have to question. The executive order
Speaker 3: that Donald Trump, which we have to remind people, is
Speaker 3: not a law. Executive orders are not laws, and so
Speaker 3: I'm still confused on how you actually execute that, but
Speaker 3: it didn't say any It was a bunch of nothing
Speaker 3: to me in that, you know, I didn't really understand it.
Speaker 3: So I'm curious because I think FAM you can be
Speaker 3: the poster child on how worried and concerned we should be.
Speaker 3: For HBC's I'm curious how this might go, like who
Speaker 3: are the Is he looking to put a Republican as president?
Speaker 3: Is he influencing the board of trustees?
Speaker 1: So again, all of these this is the stuff that
Speaker 1: is happening behind the scenes. So I'm hesitant to say
Speaker 1: who is doing what, and more interested in the fact
Speaker 1: that the process is being disrupted that we can no
Speaker 1: longer trust that the people who become finalists for these
Speaker 1: jobs uh to lead these institutions are finalists because there's
Speaker 1: a ringer in there. There were their finalists, because there's
Speaker 1: somebody who is percolating to the top. In fam use case,
Speaker 1: the candidate who is seen to be the one to
Speaker 1: be the one who has come out appearing to have
Speaker 1: the support of at least all the known Republicans that
Speaker 1: I know who are on the board and who are
Speaker 1: doing their level best to cozy up to the administration.
Speaker 1: Are supporting this one candidate. This one candidate happens to
Speaker 1: have never ever worked in higher education as an employee,
Speaker 1: never been an administrator of a college, never been a president,
Speaker 1: and is against being has been set up against candidates
Speaker 1: who actually do have higher education experience. Provosts don't.
Speaker 4: I don't want to do it.
Speaker 1: No, I'll say I'll say her name or name. Actually,
Speaker 1: you know what. The reason why I'm not naming the
Speaker 1: person is because I actually think the issue is bigger
Speaker 1: than the individual. The issue that I really have with
Speaker 1: it is politics being used to maneuver a process which
Speaker 1: is supposed to be about fam you and famuse, famuse
Speaker 1: future and what is in the best interest of the
Speaker 1: institution that is being hijacked by not?
Speaker 4: Is it Marv Marva Johnson.
Speaker 1: Marva Johnson is the candidate that is being championed. Yes,
Speaker 1: and we again, I'm not afraid.
Speaker 5: Vice President for State Government Affairs at Charter Communications.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the other people come from. Yes.
Speaker 5: Ronde Allen, Provosts and Vice President for af Academic Affairs
Speaker 5: at University of Maryland Eastern Shore, Gerald Hector.
Speaker 4: Somebody's doorbells ring and it's not my this time.
Speaker 1: Gerald Heger definitely, it's definitely somebody else.
Speaker 5: And your vice president for Administration and Finance and University
Speaker 5: of Central Florida and Donald Palm who's the executive vice
Speaker 5: president and COO at FAMU. Marva Johnson is a group
Speaker 5: vice president for State Government Affairs at Charter Communications, correct.
Speaker 4: The state Charter.
Speaker 1: So to the point, we would expect that in evaluating
Speaker 1: the candidate for president of the largest single campus HBCU
Speaker 1: in the country, the largest producer of black bacalaureate, masterial,
Speaker 1: and doctoral degree holders amongst black folk in the state
Speaker 1: of Florida and leading in the country, would have a
Speaker 1: president who has some experience at running in institution of
Speaker 1: higher education.
Speaker 2: Are all these folks black?
Speaker 1: Uh? Those to my knowledge? Yes?
Speaker 4: Okay Marvel Marvel went to Georgetown.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean she has to college and she has degrees.
Speaker 2: And is she a Republican? She's a mega supporter. What's
Speaker 2: her Yes?
Speaker 1: In fact, some of the look I don't know her
Speaker 1: personal party affiliation. I do know in the spaces in
Speaker 1: which she works where a lot of their political money goes.
Speaker 1: And the fact that she is a support of Rohnda
Speaker 1: Scantist and there is a campaign that refers to her
Speaker 1: as Maga Marva.
Speaker 5: Well Maga Marva is or was a commissioner appointed of
Speaker 5: the state Board. The appointed a constitution revision commission. She
Speaker 5: was a commissioner on that appointed by the governor. Looks
Speaker 5: like in twenty seventeen, twenty eighteen, I'm just trying to
Speaker 5: figure out what prepares Marva to be the president of
Speaker 5: the college. It says that she's loyalty served as chair.
Speaker 5: So she served as chair of the Florida State Board
Speaker 5: of Education. It says that she said, I'm not I'm
Speaker 5: not saying this is run. I'm just trying to figure
Speaker 5: out what they would argue grounds her.
Speaker 1: What they're arguing, I don't mind sharing that she can
Speaker 1: she because of her corporate contacts, that she can raise
Speaker 1: money for Florida A and M University. And by the way,
Speaker 1: anybody who's ever applied to lead an organization or job
Speaker 1: commits to being able to raise godly on some you know,
Speaker 1: godly amounts of money. Uh. And guess what after they
Speaker 1: get the job, giving stays about where it is and
Speaker 1: and problem, you know, life goes on and nobody removes
Speaker 1: that person because they failed to bring on godly amounts
Speaker 1: of money to the institution.
Speaker 3: What's needed, Andrew, because to me, this is a big deal,
Speaker 3: pretty serious, and I didn't quite understand it when you
Speaker 3: were saying it before, but now that I'm hearing you,
Speaker 3: this is actually a very serious issue that needs urgent attention.
Speaker 3: I'm thinking about all the family alumni who we know,
Speaker 3: you included. We cannot put the hand like our precious HBCUs.
Speaker 2: In the hands of MAGA.
Speaker 5: People give them we see any higher education exp like
Speaker 5: I'm going through an.
Speaker 3: Outside of that. Like, to me, that's not the biggest flag.
Speaker 3: The biggest flags of me is that she's MAGA and
Speaker 3: b flag for me is that she has no I don't.
Speaker 5: Think the higher education administrator. And in order to be
Speaker 5: considered for a vice president role, let alone of president,
Speaker 5: you have to have had some years of experience in
Speaker 5: higher education.
Speaker 1: She doesn't have ANGELA, it doesn't her qualifications do not
Speaker 1: even meet with FAM. You advertise this as needing for
Speaker 1: the position.
Speaker 5: And then here's the thing that makes it even worse.
Speaker 5: And I'm just gonna call a thing a thing. You're
Speaker 5: you want to constantly come at us about black folks
Speaker 5: who don't meet qualifications, and that's d I and then
Speaker 5: they go and get somebody who was remarkably unqualified to
Speaker 5: drill home their point that we're not quality.
Speaker 4: That is not our choosing, that's y'all's choosing. We ain't choosing.
Speaker 1: When we talked about HEXF and we talked about the
Speaker 1: Joint chiefs of Staffs person where the President had to
Speaker 1: waive the qualifications for the position in order to get
Speaker 1: the black man out and put his person in. My concern, y'all,
Speaker 1: is for fam you most immediately, but it is for
Speaker 1: our institutions, our institutions that are being politicized and overly politicized,
Speaker 1: where you can't no longer trust these processes to deliver
Speaker 1: a candidate who's most qualified and best for the institution,
Speaker 1: but rather one who is most reliable to ensuring the
Speaker 1: agenda of said politician.
Speaker 3: I think one of the biggest concerns I have to
Speaker 3: andrew in terms of putting our HBCUs in these hands,
Speaker 3: like we've seen what happened at other institutions of higher education,
Speaker 3: starting Columbia, like they are turning over universities are capitulating
Speaker 3: to this administration, turning over sensitive data, private information about
Speaker 3: the student body there and so often, but even before
Speaker 3: we get to curriculum. The very specific thing that concerns me.
Speaker 3: When we talk about immigration, we rarely think about black immigrants.
Speaker 3: But there are a huge number of black people who
Speaker 3: attend HBCUs who.
Speaker 2: Were not born in America.
Speaker 3: And so if you put a MAGA person over fam you,
Speaker 3: that means people who may have been born in Jamaica
Speaker 3: who are attending school, people who've been born on the
Speaker 3: continent in Nigeria, like I know at c AU and
Speaker 3: AUC there were all types of foreign born students attending school,
Speaker 3: and so you could you could be doing things like
Speaker 3: inviting ice on campus to now deport to the government's
Speaker 3: disappearing people and are just even our personal like our
Speaker 3: social security number everything, you're turning that over And to
Speaker 3: your point andree the protest laws in in Florida, that's
Speaker 3: really serious.
Speaker 1: And in the country. I think, if I know, we've
Speaker 1: got to rap on this, and I regret that I
Speaker 1: didn't do that as complete a job at highlighting I
Speaker 1: think the real concerns here of me as an alumnus
Speaker 1: of an HBCU very specifically fam you. But to give
Speaker 1: you one example, we have student leaders who are not
Speaker 1: prepared to weigh into this fight because they're in fear
Speaker 1: of what would happen to them if they opposed a
Speaker 1: candidate of choice. Would they would they somehow figure out
Speaker 1: a way to keep their degrees from them? Would they
Speaker 1: somehow figure out a way that the letters of recommendation
Speaker 1: for graduate school or to law school or medical school
Speaker 1: could be withheld by administrators because they opposed a candidate
Speaker 1: for president. This is terrifying because the university environment is
Speaker 1: exactly where you would expect to see protests where you
Speaker 1: exactly expect to see young people who are enlightened standing
Speaker 1: up and saying not here, not today, not now, not ever.
Speaker 1: And now our folks, who generally, at this stage in
Speaker 1: their lives are free to express their free opinions, are
Speaker 1: no longer free because they've got to be concerned at
Speaker 1: what they see happening at the federal level, where folks
Speaker 1: are being disappeared on the street because of political disagreement.
Speaker 1: So what all I'm saying is that the efforts that
Speaker 1: we are seeing happen nationally are trickling down such to
Speaker 1: the point that even at a state institution HBCU, folks
Speaker 1: are in fear of retribution for saying I just want
Speaker 1: to qualify candidate to be my president. I just saying,
Speaker 1: I just want someone who is going to look out
Speaker 1: for our best interests first and foremost.
Speaker 3: I just say, because we only have three minutes left,
Speaker 3: what is the most urgent ass like, what can we
Speaker 3: need right now?
Speaker 1: There is a letter circulating for rattlers, students, fans of FAM,
Speaker 1: youse support orders of the Institution. You all could sign,
Speaker 1: myself included to say one, we want somebody with experience
Speaker 1: who meets the minimum qualifications to be considered for the presidency.
Speaker 1: So eliminate those who don't meet that criteria. They may not,
Speaker 1: but we then secondly, we'll call that person out for you.
Speaker 1: If you can't tell from their resume in your interview
Speaker 1: that they're not qualified, let us just simply go to
Speaker 1: the record. Let's look at the facts. Tell me where
Speaker 1: this person meets the qualifications for higher education governance. You see, you,
Speaker 1: we can't just have a president who fundraises. We can't
Speaker 1: just have a president who is an administrator. We can't
Speaker 1: just have a president who understands the goals and the
Speaker 1: missions of historically black universities and understands the special character
Speaker 1: of FAM. You as a state institution who doesn't believe
Speaker 1: and the legacy of HBCUs and the fact that we
Speaker 1: were shut out of every other state school until fam
Speaker 1: You got created eighteen eighty seven, and at that point
Speaker 1: we have produced exactly the kind of outcomes you would
Speaker 1: want to see in exemplary fashion. But if we have
Speaker 1: a president who doesn't believe in HBCUs, who is willing
Speaker 1: to capitulate to what the governor says we ought to
Speaker 1: be and what we ought to do, and who's doing
Speaker 1: the bidding of a maga, then we begin the destruction
Speaker 1: of ourselves. And we cannot be sleep walking during this time.
Speaker 1: So my call is one wake up to get that letter,
Speaker 1: Sign that letter, and we could make it available on
Speaker 1: the post notes. You know how to access it. But
Speaker 1: it is moving around rather organically now to folks to
Speaker 1: raise the specter that y'all can't come here and do
Speaker 1: anything and treat us any kind of way just because
Speaker 1: we the Black school, and that if you come for us,
Speaker 1: we're coming back for you. So my hope is that
Speaker 1: we could get some real justice out of this process,
Speaker 1: and justice to me would be the appointment of a qualified,
Speaker 1: fully qualified individual to the position and quite Frankly, the
Speaker 1: other candidates meet the minimum requirements, So why are we
Speaker 1: being played? Why the politics on us?
Speaker 4: I just went through this lady's whole resume, like the
Speaker 4: one that she submitted.
Speaker 1: To FAM you, and it's still no.
Speaker 4: I'm literally the.
Speaker 5: Only education experience she has is being appointed by Rick
Speaker 5: Scott and then being appointed to a different board by
Speaker 5: Ron de Santis. It doesn't make any sense. She has
Speaker 5: no experience at the Florida College Foundation board. She's on
Speaker 5: the Pace Academy for Girls. She's on the Florida Scholars
Speaker 5: Academy board appointed by DeSantis and the Florida State Board
Speaker 5: of Education for eight years. There is no other higher
Speaker 5: education k through tale of education pre early child, no
Speaker 5: other experience in education, at least not listed on her
Speaker 5: resume that she submitted for the presidential search, without which
Speaker 5: I would find interesting.
Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure. It's just it's sickening for them to
Speaker 1: think that they can just throw anything at us and
Speaker 1: that we're going to be okay. And that to me
Speaker 1: is a reflection of their vowe where they value us
Speaker 1: and you can't value me and send me somebody who
Speaker 1: ain't never run no institution, FAM you when it advertises
Speaker 1: for its president. We ought to be getting the krem
Speaker 1: de la creme of candidates and higher education coming to
Speaker 1: apply for these positions. The reason we are not is
Speaker 1: because real academics aren't interested in the politics. They're not
Speaker 1: interested in being a do boy or a do girl
Speaker 1: for Governor X or y or Z. They're there in
Speaker 1: service to the institution. And Marvin may be a very
Speaker 1: good person as an individual. I'm not assaulting that. What
Speaker 1: I'm assaulting is the very clear absence of qualifications for
Speaker 1: the position that she seeks. And because I love FAM you,
Speaker 1: and because I love our HBCUs, we can't let our
Speaker 1: banner institutions fall at this level.
Speaker 4: Of an.
Speaker 5: She got a her resume that's quoted named Roscoe Young.
Speaker 5: He runs something called the Young Kinsley Technology Group, and
Speaker 5: that ain't even based in Florida.
Speaker 4: Did he go to FAM? You do you know Roscoe?
Speaker 4: See Young? Andrew.
Speaker 1: I don't know Roscoe. I know some Roscoe's all right.
Speaker 3: Well on that note, welcome home, y'all anyway, Yeah, welcome
Speaker 3: FAM you alumni step up though, this.
Speaker 1: Is this is just staying with you, HBCUs. Period. Yeah.
Speaker 5: If Roscoe Young didn't go to FAM, and she didn't
Speaker 5: quote him. I don't know why y'all got me down
Speaker 5: this rabbit hole, but I'm down it.
Speaker 1: Well it's a rabbit hole because it's it's a it's
Speaker 1: a mess.
Speaker 3: Well, hopefully you keep us posted, Andrew. Maybe on the
Speaker 3: next episode we'll talk.
Speaker 1: More about what it's all being decided, y'all in the
Speaker 1: next twelve to eighteen days. Just no things are moving.
Speaker 2: Thanks for tuning in to the mini pod, you guys.
Speaker 1: Thanks for Native lampard is the production of iHeartRadio in
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