As today's St. Petersburg Times story points out, FAMU used to be the choice for the smartest black students in the country - some of the smartest students, period - and now they’re going to college elsewhere. For space reasons, it wasn't possible in the paper to detail their credentials and accomplishments. But here's one example: Nathan Brooks, who was briefly quoted in the story, sent this e-mail after he was interviewed. Brooks is a former National Achievement Scholar at FAMU who's now doing post-doc work at the most renowned particle physics lab on the planet. (He tried to explain his project in a nutshell, but frankly, it was over The Gradebook's head.)

- Ron Matus, state education reporter