earlier reports<\/a> that promotional materials for a College of Law Black History Month event were censored \u2014 saying the controversy stems from a staff-level mistake that has been corrected.<\/p>\nIn a statement sent to BET, FAMU President Marva B. Johnson, J.D., affirmed the university\u2019s identity and mission: \u201cAs the state\u2019s only public Historically Black University, the word \u2018Black\u2019 is central to the mission and identity of Florida A&M University.\u201d Johnson added that the university \u201cunequivocally confirms that the use of the word \u2018Black,\u2019 or the phrase \u2018Black History Month,\u2019 does not violate the letter, spirit, or intent of Florida Senate Bill 266, Board of Governors Regulation 9.016, or any relevant federal guidance.\u201d<\/p>\n
The statement said FAMU\u2019s Black History Month programming is proceeding with full institutional support and listed events already underway, including a new exhibit at the Meek-Eaton Black Archives and the Harambee Festival on Feb. 28.<\/p>\n
The sharper operational response came from Cecil Howard, Associate Provost and Interim Dean of the College of Law, who emailed students and reporters to clarify the situation. Howard said that after News 6 Orlando reported that certain words had been flagged, he met directly with the students involved \u201cto provide clarification and to state unequivocally: the word \u2018Black\u2019 is not prohibited. No such restriction exists, and none has been directed by university leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n
Howard explained the issue was \u201ca staff-level error\u2014an overly cautious interpretation that went beyond what the law requires,\u201d and that the university immediately engaged a Florida higher-education law expert who confirmed that neither state law nor Board of Governors rules ban use of the word \u201cBlack\u201d or the phrase \u201cBlack History Month.\u201d He added, \u201cI fully concur with this expert legal opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n
To prevent a repeat, the College of Law has implemented several steps: an enhanced review process for student promotional materials, a standardized escalation protocol, a secondary review mechanism, and alignment of the law college\u2019s communications review with main-campus practices. Pending full rollout, Howard says he will assume final review and approval authority for event communications. He also reminded students that the university\u2019s grievance process is available if they believe policies are misapplied.<\/p>\n
The original concern \u2014 voiced by student organizers who said reviewers flagged phrases such as \u201cBlack,\u201d \u201cwomen,\u201d and \u201caffirmative action\u201d \u2014 sparked alarm on an HBCU campus and prompted broader debate about how public universities interpret rules around state funding and DEI. FAMU\u2019s latest statements say that interpretation, not law, triggered the confusion and that steps are now in place to clarify policy and protect student expression.<\/p>\n
We have updated our earlier coverage to reflect these statements. BET will continue to follow how campus leaders implement the promised changes and whether students feel those fixes restore confidence in the approval process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Florida A&M University College of Law student said she was told to strip the word \u201cBlack\u201d from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149433,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[232,234,233],"class_list":{"0":"post-149432","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tallahassee","8":"tag-tallahassee","9":"tag-tallahassee-headlines","10":"tag-tallahassee-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}