According to the 2005-2006 evaluation of Florida A&M University’s Interim President Castell V. Bryant, more than half of the survey’s participants do not believe she promotes “integrity and high moral values in all aspects of operations” for the university.
When prompted to say whether they strongly agree, agree, disagree, strongly disagree or have no position on Bryant’s leadership by example on this issue, approximately 26 percent disagreed and approximately 36 percent strongly disagreed.
“The faculty has low morale,” FAMU chapter of United Faculty of Florida member Bill Tucker said. He said the faculty has been disappointed by Bryant’s performance as interim president.
The bulk of the survey’s participants were tenured and untenured faculty members. Other participants included other various FAMU employees, such as librarians and researchers. Slightly less than half of the participants were tenured faculty.
The identities of those surveyed have remained anonymous for professional reasons. Tucker thought the identities were kept anonymous “so people could express themselves.”
He said some of the people who were surveyed are “worried about retribution” and that administrators can be vindictive.
But less than 10 percent of the survey’s participants were graduate or undergraduate students.
“Faculty has been asking for this survey. It is done at Florida State (University) every year,” Tucker said.
The source of the survey’s evaluative items were taken from Bryant’s “Promise to the Board of Trustees,” published in the Capital Outlook in December 2004.
Only the final two survey items were added by FAMUFF, regarding how much Bryant recognizes the National Alumni Association’s and the faculty’s contributions to the bettering of FAMU.
Participants characterized Bryant’s “commitment to problem solving in ways that are in the best interest of the total university” negatively. Almost three-quarters of them disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement.
Approximately 80 percent of participants identified Bryant as unappreciative of the “role and contribution of the faculty” to furthering FAMU toward the goals she laid out in the beginning of her term.
Although the participants’ opinions of Bryant may not be that high, she seems to be respected in some aspects, according to the survey.
Approximately half of respondents agree or strongly agree that the interim president has the “commitment to make difficult decisions in an environment of competing opportunities.”
At press time, the interim president’s executive assistant, Leslie Roberts, said Bryant had no comment because she did not know the basis upon which the survey items were selected or the methodology that the survey employed.
The evaluation was funded by FAMUFF and compiled by Key Survey, Inc.