FAMU students should elect the Royal Court

The Royal Court is a common entity at any HBCU.

At FAMU, however, the Royal Escorts are handpicked by the elected Mr. FAMU rather than running and being elected to the position.  It may be time to rethink that process.

“I feel like that needs to be changed because there are other institutions out there such as BCU (Bethune-Cookman) for example that has Mr. Freshman and Mr. Sophomore. We should have that same opportunity to run for other positions than Senator, King of Orange or Mr. FAMU. It provides fairness all around,” said freshman Senator Jacques Dumas.

Some HBCUs such as Bethune-Cookman, Tennessee State, and North Carolina Central allow the men to run for Mr. positions for each designated class. However, at FAMU the men are subjected to an application and interview for the Royal Escort position.

The FAMU tradition has remained consistent and some students believe it does not allow the men of FAMU the same level of fairness to be represented on the royal court.

It’s he tradition of everything looking perfect on the outside. The royal escorts are chosen by height so that the court is aesthetically pleasing. In essence, the royal court is the face of the university.

“I feel like we should actually have to run for the royal court escort because doing the application would kinda’ be biased for the ones who won Mr. and Miss FAMU. I feel like running would make it a little more fair for the escorts,” said FAMU student Jonathan Franklin.

There are FAMU students both male and female who believe a separate process to represent the university is not fair to the men who would like to be on the royal court.

Not being able to be elected by the class to represent the class can leave male students feeling disenfranchised. Royal escorts do not have to be a member of the class that is being represented.

“Honestly I feel like males should be allowed the same type of opportunities as the women do. If women can fight for a crown that same opportunity can be allotted to a man. There are probably a lot of men that want to do that or want to do more than an interview process. They probably want to show the university how good their recruitment skills are and how good they are with people,” said FAMU student Monica Myrick.

The qualifications for escort and attendant parallel so there should not be a division as far as how the position is filled.