I know. You’re asking yourself, “When did Kanye West do a song about Florida Memorial University?” He didn’t. This is about another Ye. Dan Ye.
As members of the team at UNCF, founded in 1944 to support its now 36 member institutions, and one of the largest scholarship providers to college students, providing $64 million annually to 10,000 students, we follow the stories written about higher education, HBCUs and our members. We took notice when TheMiami Times published a story with the salacious headline, “Florida Memorial University ranked among financially distressed colleges at risk of collapse.”
With UNCF being the home of the Frederick Patterson Research Institute, we looked at the rankings and methodology. The creator of the ranking, Dan Ye, used just four metrics for the ranking. It makes it tough to give a lot of weight to a ranking with so few variables, variables that often undervalue historically Black colleges and universities like Florida Memorial.
Ye appears to exaggerate the situation by telling The Times that unless the school revamps their recruitment strategies and curriculum, he didn’t “see them lasting for another 10 years.” But on the methodology page, he more thoughtfully writes “Schools in this band show multiple stress signals concurrently but are not yet in free fall… These institutions still have a window to course-correct through aggressive cost reduction, new revenue lines (graduate programs, online offerings, partnership models), regional consortium arrangements, or wholesale curriculum redesign…”
That’s fair.
And if Ye and The Times had spent any time on campus, they would know this is what they are doing right now — successfully. We spent two days on campus this past April as part of a site visit. What we found was far from a distressed institution. By leaning into the support from UNCF, Florida Memorial just announced they reached record enrollment this fall, more than double from last fall, a feat that is more newsworthy than Ye’s ranking.
Since President William McCormick’s appointment, FMU has prioritized expanding Business Administration, which grew from 238 to 1,280 students (437%), and Religion and Philosophy, which recorded an astounding 1,723% increase, from 13 to 237 students. They developed new partnerships with local churches to grow FMU’s enrollment among South Florida’s Brazilian population.
FMU is also working with Global University Systems to expand the institution’s reach into other international markets. FMU has enrolled students from Albania and Egypt, continues to grow its Bahamian population and is building connections in the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. In an era where men of all races are missing in higher education, the institution celebrated yet another milestone by achieving a balanced student population, with men representing 51% of their enrollment.
They are partnering with the FAA using artificial intelligence to teach air traffic controllers, developing plans for a campus stadium that would serve not only the university but the broader community, and repurposing land to build new academic and student housing facilities.
All of this from the only institution in America which relocated its campus due to racial terrorism — twice!
Ye’s ranking is just one snapshot based on limited metrics and should not be viewed as definitive of the work happening at Florida Memorial. We saw an entire movie, and with an economic impact of over $90 million based on the 2024 UNCF Economic Impact report, it makes much more sense for The Times and South Florida to support Florida Memorial.
Instead of appearing to hope FMU “all falls down,” South Florida needs to get some of the original Ye’s “School Spirit” and ensure FMU becomes “Stronger.”
Walter M. Kimbrough is the executive vice president for Research and Member Engagement, and Kiera Morrison is the senior program manager for Transformation Support at UNCF.
