Five months into their reign the FAMU Royal Court for the 2019-2020 academic year has been receiving some unwanted heat from fellow Rattlers and alumni.
Court members were recently criticized on social media after some did wear makeup during acts of service as the new semester was getting underway. The Twitter frenzy is even being blamed for the alleged firing of a restaurant worker.
The first mention of a Royal Court member not wearing makeup on move-in day sparked a lot of morally challenging conversations among students and some socially interactive alumni. Even though the tweeter later said they initially meant for the statement to regard several court members, many in the student body acted as though it was an allegation toward FAMU.
“Make-up isn’t my platform, work is,” tweeted Kyra Freeman, the 113th Miss Florida A&M University after being concerned about a tweet regarding the standards of how Royal Courts have been carrying themselves lately on different campuses, but more importantly FAMU’s.
At most post-secondary institutions, student leaders including Royal Court members are held to higher standards as the faces of the school, and they tend to act accordingly. But what about the protection of self over protection of the university?
“They are human but they are representing a major brand,” Shardai Sallye, a freshman political science major, said. “A classy clapback is always acceptable; people don’t know how to react when you use education against foolishness.”
The student body seems to be taking a collective turn on title perception while belittling the role of courts. Statements like this one have been surfacing on social media for quite some time but they weren’t as frequent during the reign of other courts.
“Having a title doesn’t make you a good student, graduating does,” said a twitter participant.
In actuality the Royal Court serves as key recruitment efforts to increase student intake and help bring in funding to improve different aspects of the university.
Eliott Ford, a current royal escort, said, “We are ambassadors for recruitment, we want people to look up to us when we serve and they come to the campus.”
FAMU’s Royal Court advisers did not respond to numerous attempts for comment.