Some 600 adjunct professors and graduate teaching assistants at Florida A&M University have yet to be paid this year, according to an article published today by Diverse: Issues in Higher Education. The failure to pay the employees, the article says, is another example of the financial and managerial problems that have plagued the university for years.

The university appeared to be putting its fiscal house in order last year, when an audit finally was completed for 2004-5. But the payroll snafu seems to represent the revival of a practice that got A&M into trouble in the past: unbudgeted spending. According to a letter from the university’s interim president, Castell V. Bryant, “departments are hiring additional personnel without first assuring they have the available funds for the positions.” That recalls an auditor’s report two years ago that found that A&M had overspent its budget by more than $51-million.