Former Cheyney University president Michelle Howard-Vital, PhD, has been named as Executive Vice President and Provost for Academic Affairs of Florida Memorial University.
In a release, FMU President Roslyn Clark Artis lauded Howard-Vital’s experience and advocacy, and said that she will be an asset to the university’s development.
“Dr. Howard-Vital brings a wealth of academic and administrative experience to the Florida Memorial University Cabinet,” Dr. Artis said. “She is an advocate for high quality education and will do much to highlight the skills and expertise of our phenomenal faculty. She is a prolific writer and scholar in her own right and will certainly set a high standard for all of our academic programs. Having served as a University President for more than 7 years at two (2) different Historically Black Colleges, she brings clear understanding of the academic enterprise and the unique role of an HBCU.”
Dr. Howard-Vital began her tenure at the university on Feb. 1. In July 2014, she retired after seven years at the helm of the Cheyney campus, and following more than 30 years in various executive stops at Winston-Salem State University and the University of North Carolina System.
This is a classic example of what’s hindering our beloved HBCUs in which many have the tendency to reward mediocrity. Florida Memorial University (FMU) will have someone in the upper echelon of the university who previously retired along with three decades of higher education experience. As a result, the same type of status-quo and perfunctory mindset will be transported to FMU and thereby remaining virtually stagnant. For those who dissent, all one have to do is merely examine the overall functionality, operations, and retention/graduation rate of the prior institutions where Dr. Howard-Vital was employed to understand my point.
As a result, for those ‘up an coming’ native born Black HBCU administrator who possess a different way of conducting business will continue to be denied.