Former King of Orange and Green, Travis Roberts, lost his crown due to failure to meet academic requirements of the royal court.
According to Roberts, the criterion to maintain the crown is having a 2.5 grade point average from the time of election until the end of the upcoming school year.
“I lost my crown due to my GPA not being a 2.5,” said Roberts, 19, a senior biology and pre-dentistry student from Fort Lauderdale.
“That was the thing I did not have,” Roberts said.
Roberts currently holds a 2.37 GPA.
Dean Henry Kirby, associate vice president and dean of students, said along with meeting the GPA requirement, the king of orange and green must meet constitution requirements.
“If a person fails to meet criteria, unfortunately, they can’t hold the office,” Roberts said.
Roberts said he was the one who informed his adviser that he did not have the GPA to hold office for the 2009-2010 school year.
“I informed my adviser when my grade was changed on Monday [Sept. 1] morning that I was ineligible to participate with the court,” Roberts said.
According to Roberts, the adviser investigates the matter and then informs Kirby. After that, necessary steps are taken when an elected official does not qualify to hold his or her position.
Kirby said it was difficult to break the news to Roberts. “He made it easy for me because he understood,” Kirby said.
Roberts apologized to the people that voted for him.
“I feel like I have let the student-body down because they’re the ones that elected me into office,” said Roberts, “…and I let my fellow court members down.”
Runner-up to the crown, Quinton Strother, will replace Roberts as the new king.
“I was kind of sad he lost it,” said Strother, 22, a senior broadcast journalism student from Chicago, who had known Roberts even before last spring’s election.
Strother said he is more upset at FAMU for taking so long to verify all the information concerning GPA and other royal court requirements.
“If [FAMU] knew certain people had to have certain grades, they could have did this at the beginning of the summer … or they could of did it after the person ran and verify all the information and making sure the person is legit,” said Strother. “Let’s not wait until the week or two before school starts or a week or two into school to [find] out if somebody is legit or not.”
Aside from his new position, Strother is a member of the Upsilon Psi Chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity and a personality on WANM 90.5’s freaky business hour on Saturday nights.
“I just wasn’t waiting around for him to fail or anything like that,” said Strother, “So I proceeded on with my life.”
The new king’s plan for his year-long term include: increasing student attendance at volleyball, softball and baseball games, have someone sponsor free food at football games during and after half-so students will stay for the remainder of the game.
“I’m happy and excited that [Strother’s] the one that actually took over my position,” Roberts said.
Roberts said he does not want the students who voted for him to be sad for his loss.
“I want to let them know that the title didn’t make me,” said Roberts. “I’m going to do everything that I’ve done in the past, in the present and future until I graduate from FAMU.