Last summer, Vilma Martinez walked into the Florida A&M University law school with hundreds of other first-year students and began to dream.
It was the first day of orientation, and Martinez was struck by the diversity of faces. Optimism coursed through the new, $30-million building on the edge of downtown Orlando.
She thought: This place will make America better.
"You feel that going in," said Martinez, a Tampa native with Cuban roots. "You become one of the faithful."
But the good vibes didn't last.
Echoing more than a dozen students who talked with the St. Petersburg Times in the past two months, Martinez said she became disillusioned as problems like late financial aid checks and insufficient academic support and career counseling festered. Instead of addressing student and faculty concerns, administrators put up a wall of silence, she said.