Professors may strike at FAMU's law school

Instructors cite lack of pay for summer classes
STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

As many as 10 professors at Florida A&M University's law school who didn't get paid for the first session of summer classes have threatened to stop teaching if they don't get the salaries they were promised.
Interim Dean James M. Douglas said university officials thought the summer faculty's salaries were too generous, but provost Larry Robinson had pledged to pay them in full.
Summer instructors were promised about $20,000 each for teaching four credit hours at the Orlando campus, about the same salary as the past two summers, though only about $13,000 each had been set aside, Douglas said.
"I think a lot of it had to do with the processing of paperwork," Robinson said. "A lot of people are working extremely hard to make sure it does not happen again."
Interim President Castell Bryant said FAMU's human-resources office notified her earlier this week that it had just received a batch of faculty contracts for the ending summer term. That group probably includes faculty members other than those at the law school.
"That has nothing to do with the computer," Bryant said. "Somebody is not processing paperwork when they're supposed to."
Bryant didn't know yet how many faculty were affected. She said she's working to resolve the problem.
The Tallahassee Democrat reported in late May that an undetermined number of faculty received only partial paychecks for the first summer pay period. Bryant said then that everyone who didn't get paid would get their money within a few days.
FAMU has been under state scrutiny for financial mismanagement since audits cited untimely bank reconciliations, poor accounting practices, deficient check-writing controls and late vendor payments.
The school cut athletic scholarships in every sport and has enforced a spending moratorium on cell-phone, travel and other routine expenses.
Douglas said the law school's second summer session would begin Monday as scheduled.
He replaced former Dean Percy Luney earlier this month after an audit showed that a donor who gave $1 million for an endowed chair was being paid $100,000 a year by the school.
The Associated Press and Staff Writer Melanie Yeager contributed to this report.