Page 9 - Florida Sentinel 5-29-20

Groups To Address (Continued from page 8-A)
cans in key positions of governance, leadership, tenured faculty and admin- istrative staff along with the significant lack of USF System spending with Black-owned companies.
“We should all email and call our elected officials who vote on matters that support the USF System and ask them to speak up in support of the USF System increasing its representation of and spending with African Americans,” said Dr. Shannon.
“Our concerns are focused on facts and data provided by the USF System”, said SMBG member, Bryce Bowden.
“While certain actions have been taken by the USF System (hiring staff, installing software to track spending by race and gender, multiple orientations and outreach events, etc.) these efforts, based upon the USF System reports, have not resulted in significant changes.”
“African Americans (Blacks) repre- sent approximately 24% of the taxpay- ing/voting population, within the City of Tampa, that contribute to funding used to support the USF System. Therefore, it is more than reasonable for diversity, equity, fairness and the in- clusion of African Americans to not be
the exception, but instead the normal way of business within a publicly funded USF System,” Ransom conti- nued.
“By comparison, Moffitt Research
(located on the campus of USF Tampa) spent approximately $13 million dollars with Black owned companies, Tampa International Airport spent nearly $60 million dollars directly with Black-
owned companies in Phase 1 of its mas- ter plan development; Hillsborough County Public Schools spends millions of dollars with Black-owned companies to build public schools,” said Dr. Shannon.
“These organizations are also pub- licly funded, but have found ways to in- clude Black-owned companies in shared prosperity,” said Dr. Ander- son Prewitt.
Dr. Prewitt is one of the key per- sons that conducts the Business Analyt- ics for these type TOBA/SMBG initiates. He continues, “it begs to ques- tion the leadership within the publicly funded USF System about its deficit spending with Black-owned companies and challenge its leadership to use its authority to close this gap.We are all ob- ligated to stand up and fight for our in- terest,” Dr. Prewitt said.
“These issues are about respect and accountability. Our strength and lever- age have and always will be on our unity to stand together. When we stand, speak-up and take actions on our causes for the right reasons, we have histori- cally always prevailed. This is one of those moments,” Ransom concluded.
FRIDAY, MAY 29, 2020 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY PAGE 9-A