The first convocation of the school year featured President Fred Gainous delivering a list of goals and major plans for FAMU during the 2004-2005 academic year.
However, the vision that President Gainous shared during his address served as a reminder that with another year comes the potential for more unfulfilled promises.
President Gainous deserves the opportunity to bring his plans to fruition. But his history of accomplishing the goals that he sets forth is dismal at best.
His most notable failures in this regard were the move to Division 1-A and his plan to create “One FAMU.” The infamous poorly planned move to D1-A has damaged FAMU’s reputation and financial well being, while the rift between Gainous and the board of trustees has proven that the University is anything but united.
Gainous’ inability to deliver on his promises has caused enough damage to FAMU. He needs to adjust his position on some of his latest promises and goals before more shame engulfs the University.
The proposed recreation and fitness center that is scheduled to open in 2005 has yet to break ground.
Still, Gainous insists on stating that students will have access to the facilities by next year.
President Gainous has also touted improvements in housing and major renovations, meanwhile hundreds of students have been uprooted from their university housing mere weeks after they just settled in. If assigning student housing seems to be a difficult task, what kind of undertaking can the FAMU community expect from a major renovations project?
President Gainous must reevaluate his plans and their feasibility before he expresses his goals and highly idealistic plans for FAMU.
There must be solid reasoning and substantive evidence to support the plans he decides to announce to the students and the rest of the FAMU community. Gainous is running out of opportunities to do right by FAMU before the clamoring for his resignation or removal from office grows to a resounding volume.
Let’s just hope net checks are in mailboxes by this afternoon.
Voter initiatives should inform
The young adult population is being targeted by massive media campaigns encouraging them to exercise their right to vote. These efforts are filled with good intentions, but are leading this apathetic group down the wrong path.
With Sean “P. Diddy” Combs leading the way with his “Vote or Die” slogan and MTV pushing “Choose or Lose,” young adults are being bombarded with the notion that it is their responsibility and in their best interest to vote.
As the campaigns go into overdrive and overkill, a generation of nonvoters is being transformed into a generation of uninformed voters.
Unfortunately, an uninformed voter is as dangerous as a nonvoter.
The heads of these initiatives need to follow-up their slogans with pivotal messages about candidates’ stances on issues and voting procedures.
Simply handing this large group a ballot is not enough.
If a true change is to be made, young adults must learn how to become informed citizens.
Because voting is an activity these campaigns want the youth of America to participate in for a lifetime, the focus has to shift from just showing up at the polls to making a difference when they cast their votes.