Excellence requires unity

Amid the many problems this University is facing, poor campus housing is one of them. Campus residents stay disappointed about housing issues.

The Residence Hall Association recently held a forum where campus residents voiced their concerns about housing. This effort to reach out to the students is applauded. It is time for the students and the faculty to come together in order to bring about change.

The University’s problems, housing included, are not going to be solved with just the administration. Together students and faculty can bring this University back to its 1997 Princeton Review College of the Year status.

FAMU has a legacy of excellence and if we are not careful, our own ignorance will help close the doors of one more HBCU: ours. We cannot afford to let financial difficulties, housing issues, customer disatisfaction, student disregard and personal agendas to get in the way of letting this University carry out its mission – to present African Americans with the best education possible.

The first step in this process is to include students in decisions that affect the University, from housing issues to picking the next president.

It is time FAMU.

It is time for a change in the right direction. Students, faculty, staff and campus organizations have a responsibility to protect our alma mater. This does not mean hide our indiscretions, this means to help stop them from happening.

It is time for FAMU to return to College of the Year status.

It is time.

Hollywood recognition comes with price

Hollywood is finally getting the message that Oscar-winning performances are not only delivered by white actors and actresses.

Black actors and actresses are stepping out of the “norm” into another light that has been usually reserved for whites only. This is evident by the fact that five out of the 20 Oscar nominations are for black actors/actresses.

Hollywood is finally using black talent for something other than the typical gangster and comedy roles and Jamie Foxx is at the forefront. Foxx, nominated for best actor in “Ray” and best supporting actor in “Collateral”, is showing a different side of his talent as an actor and now has Hollywood eating out of the palm of his hand.

With this in mind, black actors and actresses should choose their screen plays wisely. It is a hard job to be black and in the forefront because blacks in the spotlight have a job to do – represent black people in the best way possible.

Now that Hollywood is realizing that black actors and actresses have more to contribute to movies than the usual roles, black audiences must take a role in Hollywood as well. Black audiences should support black films that portray blacks’ true talent. Blacks should stop letting the white critics say that films are Oscar worthy because a black man played a crooked cop or a black women was bent over backwards.