In a dramatic three-hour meeting Thursday, members of the Florida A&M University Board of Trustees made failed attempts to fire President Elmira Mangum and sparked students to march to Gov. Rick Scott’s office in support of the embattled president.
Mangum narrowly survived two votes that could have led to her ouster, the latest episode in a series of public conflicts between the president and several trustees.
Discussion during the meeting centered on payments for renovations to the president’s residence and four employee bonuses, which trustees Chairman Rufus Montgomery described as “irregularities and improprieties” that had not been approved by the board.
“It’s a violation of state law,” he said.
Despite a memo that Mangum sent Wednesday refuting the allegations, the trustees held an emergency meeting by conference call early Thursday morning. Vice Chairman Kelvin Lawson, of Jacksonville, quickly moved for her termination.
After a long debate about whether the dismissal would be for cause or not, Lawson proposed removing Mangum for “incurable cause,” and the 12-member board voted 7-5 against the move.
Lawson, Montgomery, Bettye Grable, Spurgeon McWilliams and Robert Woody voted in favor.
Cleve Warren, chief financial officer at Florida State College at Jacksonville, voted against the termination.
A second vote, to remove Mangum without cause, failed on a 6-6 tie. Student trustee Tonnette Graham, president of FAMU’s Student Government Association, at first abstained and then changed her vote at the last minute to prevent the motion from passing.
“Don’t get me wrong: I have grave concerns about Dr. Mangum and her administration,” Graham said. “But in these last two hours, I’ve gotten over 200 messages from my constituents.”
Within hours, FAMU students marched to the Capitol, demanding justice for Mangum. About 150 congregated outside the governor’s office, where their representatives met with members of Scott’s staff.
“It was an act of malfeasance on the part of the FAMU Board of Trustees,” said student body Vice President Justin Bruno, a junior from Orlando. “There needs to be some grounds for their insinuations. …They need to have grounds. They need to have evidence.”
The evidence was elusive. The allegations concerned language in Mangum’s contract requiring her to obtain board approval for any improvements to the residence — which belongs to the university — of more than $10,000. Most of the work had been done before Mangum began her job at FAMU, and she noted in her memo that the university had made improvements to the property “unprompted and unbidden by me.”
Trustees who want Mangum gone say she hasn’t worked well with them, and they criticized her job performance.
“I think the president is responsible” for the financial questions at issue, Woody said. “If she didn’t know, she should have known.”
Others said that since her hiring in January 2014, trustees haven’t given Mangum the time or support she needs to succeed.
“I’m not prepared at this time to place the blame solely at the feet of the president, because I don’t think we as a board have done everything we can to repair this relationship,” Trustee Belinda Shannon said.
But all agreed that the situation has become an embarrassment.