Frederick S. Humphries - The Florida A&M University Years, 1985 - 2001

2001

Dr. Humphries effectively served Florida A&M University as its eighth President from June 1, 1985 to December 31, 2001. He was originally expected to depart June 30, 2001. For sixteen years he brought to FAMU a high quality of academic leadership which was progressive, exciting, enriching, outstanding, and intellectually rewarding. Under his motto of "Excellence with Caring", he worked harmoniously with administrators, faculty, students, alumni, the corporate world, and other supporters of FAMU to establish a challenging and competitive educational environment. As a result, under the Humphries administration, FAMU continuously improved its image and gained increasing recognition on the state, national, and international levels.

As a dedicated alumnus of FAMU, one of President Humphries' major goals was to increase student enrollment at all levels with high-achieving, quality students. Over his sixteen-year tenure, the enrollment at FAMU more than doubled from 5,101 in 1985, to 12,257 in 2000, with an average SAT score of 1028, and an average ACT score of 20. During the same period, FAMU attracted 657 National Achievement Scholars and surpassed such universities as Harvard, Yale and Stanford to lead the nation in numbers of National Achievement Scholars in 1992, 1995, and 1997, tying with Harvard in 2000. The focus on high-achieving students led to a tenfold increase in science and engineering students, with a corresponding increase at the master's degree level. Doctoral degree programs increased from one in 1985 to ten in 2000.

Along with the increases in the quantity and quality of FAMU students, the faculty was significantly upgraded, and academic programs were expanded and diversified. In addition to conducting effective classroom teaching and research, the Faculty was inspired and motivated to increase external funding from both the public and private sectors. The Division of Sponsored Research witnessed an increase in contracts and grants from $8.5 million in 1985 to $46 million in 2000. From the private sector, the FAMU Foundation, Incorporated showed a fund balance of only $6.2 million in 1986, but by 2000, the fund balance had reached $62.5 million. The FAMU Industry Cluster (comprising 152 major corporations) and the Life-Gets-Better Scholarship program, sponsored by select members of the Cluster are firm indications of corporate America's respect for FAMU's educational leadership and graduates of its academic programs. From 1989 to 2000 FAMU provided 873 Life-Gets-Better Scholarships to outstanding minority students majoring in such disciplines as Engineering, Physical, Life, Natural, and Computer Sciences and Pre-Law. In an effort to provide the appropriate facilities for educational programs and activities to flourish, President Humphries worked assiduously with his administrators, faculty, and staff to lead one of the most successful building programs in the history of the University. During his tenure, there were 51 facilities planned, designed, constructed, renovated or acquired between 1985 and 2000 at a grand total of $256,922,556. In 1985, FAMU's operating budget was only $59,940,563, but by 2000, it had grown to $249,951,788, an increase of 416 percent.

Under the Humphries administration, FAMU was elevated to a position where its future appears extremely bright. Being selected as "College of the Year" by the TIME/Princeton Review in 1997, and being recognized in the State University System as a Comprehensive/Doctoral University in 1999 are only two of the many reasons that FAMU entered the 21st century with confidence and optimism. With a broadened institutional mission which emphasizing graduate studies and international affairs, the University can now offer additional masters and doctoral degree programs, and focus on a global perspective in many of its programs. Distance learning has become a major focus as FAMU expands its services and academic influence throughout the state and nation and on the international scenes. In a document entitled Ten Years at the Helm (FAMU: 1995) President Humphries wrote: "I sincerely believe that FAMU is destined to become one of the greatest land-grant universities in the United States, serving a diverse educational population of quality students, of highly competent and dedicated faculty members, and of astute administrators with visions for continued academic growth and excellence at the University."

Upon appointing Humphries as the eighth president of FAMU, the BOR challenged him to improve faculty morale and upgrade the faculty; effect sounder fiscal policies; increase student enrollment at all levels with quality students; expand, upgrade, and diversify academic programs; and increase extramural funding from both the public and private sectors. The BOR emphasized that successful and progressive leadership at FAMU demanded that the president respond effectively on a continuous basis to the charges that it delineated for him. When the charges delineated by the BOR are examined from a purely objective point of view, it appears that Humphries was the best qualified leader for FAMU. His experiences as a professor of chemistry at FAMU where he was active in political and community affairs; his effective leadership with the Thirteen-College Curriculum Program which emphasized innovative teaching methodologies and relevant course content for minority students; his leadership with Institute for Services to Education, Inc., which coordinated federal and private grants for a consortium of historically black colleges and universities; and his eleven years as president of Tennessee State University, which was similar to FAMU, gave him a variety and quality of experience that neither of the other candidates had. His outstanding qualifications, his immense popularity with the alumni and supporters of FAMU, and his expressed love and devotion to the University gave him an ideal combination of qualities to begin his presidency.

His love for FAMU was demonstrated in 1964 when, upon receiving his doctorate, he rejected other attractive offers to return to FAMU as an assistant professor of chemistry. For nearly four years he taught effectively at his alma mater and became totally involved in the academic, political and social life of the University. In addition to being an outstanding teacher, in 1965-66 Humphries was also an active and influential member of the FAMU Chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP). In the late 1960s FAMU was literally fighting for its life as a separate and autonomous university. Each legislative session would bring serious efforts by legislators to merge FAMU and FSU, presumably as a cost-cutting measure. Then State Senator Bob Graham of Miami and other urban senators from the central and southern sections of Florida were among the strongest proponents of merger. When a report from the Southern Regional Educational Board (SREB) was submitted to the faculty in 1968 by Dr. Lionel Newsome, a former professor at Southern University, it appeared to support the legislative concept of merger. Dr. Gore called a meeting of the Faculty Senate to discuss ways and means to counteract the merger emphasis. In the aftermath of that meeting, the FAMU Chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), with Dr. Howard E. Lewis serving as president, called a meeting to voice its objection to any consideration of merger.

As an outcome of that meeting, the members drew up a resolution stipulating that FAMU must remain a separate and autonomous university within the State University System. A decision was also made at that meeting to seek the endorsement of this resolution at the statewide meeting of the Florida AAUP. Because of the politically and racially volatile climate at the time, it was difficult to find professors who were willing to fight openly for the cause. Dr. Howard E. Lewis and Dr. Leedell W. Neyland, a past president of FAMU's Chapter of AAUP, persuaded Dr. Frederick S. Humphries and Dr. Ralph W. Turner to present and fight for the passage of the resolution at the statewide AAUP meeting in Gainesville. According to Dr. Turner, "Humphries made a very emotional and forceful presentation which had even the most conservative members listening attentively." After the presentation Humphries and Turner were pleasantly surprised to see that the group voted almost unanimously for the resolution. This endorsement, which placed professors on the statewide level in support of FAMU's autonomy, also had a significant effect on the selected legislators. Shortly thereafter, Senator Graham reversed his position on merger and became an advocate for a separate and autonomous FAMU. This early display of courage contributed to the perception of Humphries' as an aggressive leader who would fight for the survival and growth of FAMU, his alma mater.

Because of Humphries' potential for academic leadership, President Gore selected him to coordinate a select group of FAMU faculty members who participated in a consortium known as the Thirteen College Curriculum Program (TCCP) meeting at the Pine Manor Junior College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, during the summer of 1967. His efficient and highly astute management of the TCCP project demonstrated to FAMU and to others that he was destined to become an outstanding leader in higher education. Under his leadership, FAMU was named as one of the model projects among the colleges and universities which made up TCCP. In 1968, Humphries joined the staff of the Institute for Services to Education, Incorporated (ISE) in Washington, D. C., an umbrella agency which coordinated a variety of educational programs for minority and disadvantaged students at the college level. Between 1968 and 1974, he held the following directorships while providing leadership for ISE: Summer Conferences, Innovative Institutional Research Consortium, Knoxville College Study of Science Capability of Black Colleges, Interdisciplinary Programs, and two Universities Graduate Programs in Humanities. While holding most of these directorships, Humphries became the Vice President of ISE from 1970 to 1974, and was deeply involved in developing innovative and creative educational materials and procedures designed to improve the educational levels of minorities in higher education. These years of leadership in developmental education for minorities caused him to become a national advocate of good teaching and academic advisement as essentials for the educational growth and development of students. Under Humphries' leadership, the TCCP, one of the most comprehensive and successful programs in higher education for disadvantaged students, grew from 13 to 40 in historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and from 1,250 to over 20,000 students. The programs he directed led to the establishment of institutional research offices, computer-assisted instruction (long before it was fashionable), interdisciplinary courses, and advanced management practices at many of these HBCUs. He also pioneered special consortial arrangements with major universities such as the University of Massachusetts, University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie-Mellon University, American University and others to permit junior faculty members and graduates to study for the doctorate.

Outside the arena of formal education, Humphries' influence was felt in both the public and private sectors. Over the years he held and, in some cases still holds, significant leadership positions on boards, commissions, and committees designed to uplift various segments of our society. These include: Chairman, Board of Directors of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges; Member of the Board of Trustees, University of Pittsburgh; Member of the Board of Directors of Wal-Mart, Inc.; Member of the Board of Directors of Brinker International; Member of the Board of Directors of the Oak Ridge Associates Universities; Member of the National Study Panel on Big Science, National Academy of Science; United States Department of Agriculture Task Force on 1890 Land-Grant Institutions; the Division of National Science Foundation; the Board of Directors, Barnett Bank in Tallahassee; the. Board of Directors, National Merit Scholarship Corporation; the Apalachicola Bay Resources Planning and Management Committee; and many others.