Alabama A&M Alum, Odysseus Lanier's opening statement during the Size Standards Hearing

On Thursday, May 5, 2011 the House Small Business Committee Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Tax and Capital Access held a hearing entitled Professional Services: Proposed Changes to the Small Business Size Standards. Alabama A&M Alum, Odysseus Lanier testified before congress on behalf of Institute of Certified public Accountants (AICPA) for small businesses. Mr. Lanier made his argument to raise the standard for small businesses limits to $25M in federal government procurement policy.




Odysseus M. Lanier is one of four founding partners with McConnell Jones Lanier & Murphy LLP (MJLM). MJLM is the third largest African American-owned accounting and consulting firm in the United States, the largest African American-owned accounting and consulting firm south of Virginia's southern border, and the 17th largest public accounting firm in Houston, Texas, with satellite offices in Huntsville, Alabama, Dallas, Texas, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Washington, DC. He leads the firm's Federal Services Group and specializes in working with federal, state and local government agencies by providing strategic planning, financial management, and operations review and support services.

With more than 33 years of experience in strategic planning, governance, financial management, project management, control, and cost analysis, Odysseus has sharpened his skill of reviewing and evaluating governance; creating team-building systems; organizing and directing management; establishing strategic outsourcing alternatives; and analyzing general business operations. He has extensive knowledge of federal, state, and local procurement policy, procurement strategies, contracting processes, and process improvement strategies.

Odysseus is a certified public accountant (CPA) and a graduate of Alabama A&M University where he received a B.S. in Accounting in 1977 and now serves on the University's Board of Trustees. He is the former chairperson of the Board of Commissioners for the Harris County Housing Authority. He currently serves on the board of directors of Mental Health America of Greater Houston; the board of directors of the Joe Sample Youth Organization; and the corporate board for the Youth Motivation Task Force sponsored by the Alabama A&M University Career Development Services Office.

A&M Alum, Dr. Barry Carroll took the hot seat this morning as the Huntsville school board's second candidate for the job of superintendent.

Dr. Barry Carroll cites his love for Huntsville, public education during interview for superintendent slot


HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- Dr. Barry Carroll took the hot seat this morning as the Huntsville school board's second candidate for the job of superintendent.

Carroll, who has served as Limestone County's superintendent since 2001, began his career in Tuscaloosa as an assistant principal and principal. From Tuscaloosa, he came to Huntsville and served four years as principal of Ed White Middle School.

Carroll also served as director of secondary education and staff for Huntsville's system before leaving for Limestone County.

His college career can also be traced back to Huntsville, where he earned a bachelor's degree from Alabama A&M University. He earned two master's degrees and his doctorate from the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.

As Limestone County superintendent, Carroll oversees a system of 8,900 students and 1,100 employees. He earns about $150,000.

When asked about his hiring practices, Carroll said he tries to determine the characteristics of the person the system needs and then sets out to find that person.

"You want to not only get the right person on the bus, but you want to get them in the right seat on the bus," Carroll said.

He said he has seen cases in which a teacher has not fit in one part of the community but fit well in another. He also allows the principals flexibility when it comes to hiring teachers.

Achieving the right person in the right position takes communication, he said.

"I believe in progressive discipline," Carroll said. "Work with them, write them up, help them improve. Every employee deserves to be told their strengths and their weaknesses."

The board also asked how Carroll addresses lagging student achievement and improves students' test scores. He responded that, like Huntsville, Limestone County has had issues with achievement. He said he sat down with principals and administrators and came up with plans that helped students improve their reading scores. When other issues pop up, those then become the focus. He used an analogy he said he learned from a fellow educator.

"Education is like (the arcade game) Whack-a-Mole," Carroll said with a chuckle. "You solve one problem and another one pops up over here."

Despite the achievement issues, the school system has consistently met Adequate Yearly Progress, he said. The graduation rate of students is also on the rise.

Financially, Limestone County has had some of the same issues other systems have had. Nevertheless, the system currently has a operations fund balance of about a month and a half of expenses, Carroll said.

"We're just like everybody in Alabama, we've been through some tough times," Carroll said.

Carroll said his administration met in December with every school's faculty to give a presentation on the financial crisis in education. At the end of the presentation, the faculty members were asked for their input on how the system could save money.

Administrators received more than 400 suggestions.

"Some of the things (they suggested) were absolutely phenomenal," Carroll said.

Carroll pointed out that his staff goes through these steps every year, not just when there is financial crisis in the schools.

When board Vice President Laurie McCaulley asked him about his handling of diverse student bodies, Carroll said he doesn't see differences in his students.

"I just don't see color. I don't see socio-economic difference. It's about caring about the kids," he said. "If you raise standards, you don't raise your standards for just one group. You raise the standards for everyone."

Communication also was a topic that Carroll focused on. He said that all of Limestone's principals have his email address and cell phone number and that he communicates with them all regularly. There is also the system's rapid notification system that notifies teachers and parents when students will not have school due to weather or some other issue.

He said he also uses the system to let the school community know about other topics of interest, such as U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks' visit to Tanner regarding the damage from last week's tornadoes. The information went out to about 32,000 people, he said.

"That really has nothing to do with our school system, other than we've had some parents who have lost their homes," Carroll said. "But I thought they should know."

McCaulley also asked him about his experience dealing with the U.S. Department of Justice and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund regarding his system's status as an integrated school. Like Huntsville, Limestone County was under a court order ending the county's race-based dual education system when Carroll arrived there in 2001.

Under his leadership, the school retained unitary status in 2007. He said the status of being racially equitable hasn't changed much in the system, however.

"We've not done anything dramatic to our system," Carroll said. "It just gives us flexibility."

When allowed to ask his own questions, Carroll told the board he is not afraid to talk about race. He asked McCaulley, the sole black member of the board, what she thinks needs to be done about the racial divide in the community.

"We don't have time to address that issue," McCaulley said, pointing to the 12:30 p.m. end of Carroll's interview.

She did say, however, that she thinks community members are "talking at each other" rather than talking to each other.

"So a start would be coming to the table with an open mind and an open heart," Carroll said.

When asked why he would be the right candidate for Huntsville's superintendent, Carroll said that public education is the "thread that binds us together."

"I believe in it. I'm passionate about it," Carroll said. "I love public education. I love Huntsville. I would give it 110 percent. I would give it all I have to bring it in the right direction."
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Source: By Crystal Bonvillian, The Huntsville Times

William Hooper Councill's vision realized in Alabama A&M's Legacy

William Hooper Councill

Alabama A&M University: An educational institution founded in 1875 as the Colored Normal School at Huntsville by former slave William Hooper Councill. With 61 students, two teachers, and $1,000 a year from the Alabama State Legislature, Councill built his school into a training center for teachers. Legend has it that the university's bell tower is situated on the precise spot where Councill was sold into slavery and where he vowed to return to make the land a productive place for his people. In 1891, Councill's school received Land Grant funds and expanded its training to include agriculture and mechanics. It became Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University in 1969 and now boasts Alabama's oldest Bachelor of Science program in computer science, along with liberal arts, city planning, business, and several graduate programs.
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William Hooper Councill's vision realized in Alabama A&M's Legacy: Innovation, Research and accomplished Alumni.


Alabama A&M Unversity

 Alabama A&M University (AAMU)
Since its founding in 1875 by an ex-slave in Normal, Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University or Alabama A&M University (AAMU) has become known throughout the world for encouraging academic excellence among its diverse student body. The school is a member of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges and is on the register of Historically Black Colleges and Universities. The university is under the control of a board of trustees appointed by the governor, who serves as ex-officio chairman. Also sitting on its board are the president of the student government association and the president of the faculty senate.

1st Graduating  Class   

AAMU came into being as the result of an 1873 bill passed in the Alabama State Legislature that established "a State Normal School and University for the Education of the Colored Teachers First Graduating Class of Huntsville Normal Schooland Students," provided that the president and trustees of the school placed it at the disposal of the state. The school also arose in large part due to the continued efforts of its first principal and president, William Hooper Councill, who had founded its predecessor, the Lincoln Normal School, in 1869. The school opened its doors to 61 students on May 1, 1875, as the Huntsville Normal School with a state appropriation of $1,000 per year. Councill introduced industrial education to the curriculum around 1878 to provide students with practical skills that would earn them employment. It attracted wide attention, and as a result the school was assisted financially by the Slater Fund and Peabody Education Fund, as well as by private individual contributors. Efforts to teach industrial education were so successful that the state legislature authorized the school to change its name to the State Normal and Industrial School at Huntsville. The school also received an increased appropriation of $4,000 per year. In 1891, the school received additional funds under the Morrill Act of 1890, which provided monies to schools for instruction in practical and mechanical subjects such as engineering and agriculture.




William Hooper Councill

 William H. Councill The name of the school was also changed to the State Agricultural and Mechanical College for Negroes in 1891 and moved to Normal, just outside of Huntsville. There the school had ample room to develop its trades and agricultural programs. In 1919, the institution became a junior college and was renamed the State Agricultural and Mechanical Institute for Negroes.

In 1939, the state board of education permitted the institute to offer coursework at the senior college level. On January 14, 1948, the school was renamed the Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical College. The university received a "Class A" rating by the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools in August 1946 and became a fully accredited member of the association in December 1963. On June 26, 1969, the state board of education adopted a resolution changing the name of the institution to its current one, Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical (A&M) University.

Having always opened its doors to all, the nearly 6,500-student university continues to offer students who need more initial help with academics the opportunity to excel beside students who come in as internationally recognized scholars. For four consecutive years, the university placed students on coveted academic teams of USA Today. AAMU has been named one of the top 50 schools nationwide for African Americans by Black Enterprise magazine. It now boasts four Ph.D. programs: food science, physics, plant and soil science, and reading and literacy.



William Hooper Councill
Domestic Science Building 

 Many companies have turned to the school and benefitted from work by campus scientists and researchers from the Schools of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Arts and Sciences, Business, Education, and Engineering and Technology. AAMU faculty members also are involved in various aspects of research for numerous governmental agencies and subcontractors. AAMU scientists have worked on projects as varied as the development of an allergen-free peanut, Caribbean volcanoes, and plants that may prove effective for treating diabetes. The volume of research grants and contracts awarded to the university and its research faculty required the administration to develop the Alabama A&M University Research Institute (AAMURI) in 1999 to provide professional staff for pursuing, negotiating, and entering into contracts by university entities. 


 Dr. Aurthor J. Bond Engineering Building

  In 2002, a new School of Engineering and Technology facility was spearheaded and first led by Edward Barnette, the first president of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) during his faculty days at Purdue University. In addition to programs in civil engineering and electrical, industrial, and mechanical engineering technology, the accredited engineering school confers graduate degrees in electrical and mechanical engineering.

The early years of the twenty-first century have been a period of significant renovations and construction on the AAMU campus. Additions to the campus have included the aforementioned 90,000-square-foot engineering school, along with major renovations to the learning resources center and the campus's historic district. Other resources include a lab facility for programs in food and animal sciences, plant and soil science, and forestry. The recent multi-use Agribition Center in Huntsville serves as a venue for livestock shows and rodeos, as well as more formal activities.

To ensure its future success and to create long-term scholarships, the university coordinates the annual Councill Challenge Campaign to raise funds. The effort developed to help the school overcome historic state funding inequities and has contributed some $45 million to its endowment. The campaign is supported by AAMU faculty, staff, and retirees, corporations, foundations, churches, community organizations, the AAMU board of trustees, and alumni.



W.C.Handy, ca 1940's

 In 2006, the AAMU Marching Maroon and White Band led the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, California. The band's distinguished history, however, extends back to the late 1890s and early 1900s when it was conducted by Alabama native W. C. Handy, later known as "The Father of the Blues." The University Choir has made numerous regional and national appearances, and AAMU's athletic programs have gained the national spotlight many times. The school's student athletes have enjoyed success in volleyball as well as men's soccer.



AAMU Graduation

 AAMU boasts generations of outstanding alumni. Among them are William Cox, president of Cox Matthews & Associates, publishers of the nationally Alabama A&M Graduation distributed Diverse Issues in Higher Education Magazine; Henry Gilford, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Gilford Corporation; Marcus Price, CEO of the Dynamix Corporation; former American Idol winner Ruben Studdard; John Stallworth, corporate CEO, former Pittsburgh Steeler wide receiver, and inductee into the Pro Football Hall of Fame; D. E. Wilcoxon, publisher of the Renaissance Observer; and many others.

The school continues to carry on the legacy of its founder. The commitment to the education of all who enter its gates—where they are welcomed by statue of William Councill by noted sculptor Branko Medenica—has made AAMU an institution with one of the most diverse faculties in the state. Such diversity has spurred numerous collaborations and research opportunities.

Morrison, Richard D. History of Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University. Huntsville: Liberal Arts Press, 1994.

Elizabeth Sloan-Ragland
Alabama A&M University

Jerome Saintjones
Alabama A&M University

Published March 17, 2009
Last updated November 22, 2010
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Source: Alabama Encyclopedia (Alabama A&M Archives)

First Graduating Class of Huntsville Normal School

First Graduating Class of Huntsville Normal School
The first graduating class of Huntsville Normal School (now Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University) in the late 1870s.

Back row, from left: R. A. Thompson, J. E. Walker, R. B. Stamps, R. L. Houston, J. C. Barne.

Front row, from left: L. V. Brownlow, A. L. Gray, Sarah F. Adams, Miss Duncan, A. H. Halfarce, D. W. McCall, and H. K. Patrick.
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Source: Encyclopia of Alabama (courtesy of Alabama A&M University Archives)