Unofficial presidential short list could deny most FAMUans meaningful input in candidate vetting process

H. Patrick Swygert (left) and John E. Maupin, Jr. (right)

The worst kept secret in the FAMU presidential search is the effort to persuade some university trustees to support an unofficial short list of candidates behind the backs of most Rattler students, faculty, and alumni.

Rattler Nation has learned that two of the names that are being pushed are H. Patrick Swygert, former president of Howard University, and John E. Maupin Jr., the retiring president of the Morehouse School of Medicine. At this time, neither Swygert, 70, nor Maupin, 67, has publicly expressed interest in the FAMU presidency.

Swygert is currently a professor at the Howard School of Law. He returned to the faculty in 2008 after leading the university for 13 years. Before becoming Howard’s president, he headed the University at Albany, State University of New York from 1990 through 1995. He earned both his undergraduate degree (1965) and his law degree from Howard (1968).

Maupin will retire from the presidency of the Morehouse School of Medicine on June 30, 2014. He has held that position for almost seven years. Prior to that, he served as the president of Meharry Medical College from 1994 through 2006. Maupin earned his undergraduate degree from San Jose State College (1968), a doctor of dental surgery degree from Meharry (1972), and a master of business administration from Loyola College in Baltimore (1979).

Even though there appears to be some who want these two names (and others) to be fast-tracked to the finalist stage with little public discussion, there are many questions that need to be asked and answered publicly.

For example, Swygert would need to address his rocky past with the Howard University Faculty Senate. He announced his resignation in April of 2007, fewer than two months after faculty leaders sent the Board of Trustees a letter that urged his ouster. In the letter, the faculty senate chairman complained of “an intolerable condition of incompetence and dysfunction at the highest level.”

There would also be questions about whether Maupin would attempt break down the faculty tenure system at FAMU.

According to an article published by the Associated Press, Maupin implemented a sweeping overhaul of the Meharry’s tenure system during his time as the president of that school. While the faculty approved the changes, former Professor Joel Trupin claimed “faculty members had little choice but to approve the policy changes, because Meharry’s administration had vowed to withhold recommendations for promotions and tenure until they did.” Trupin was one of three former Meharry faculty members who sued the school after they were denied contract renewals in 2003, alleging that they were pushed out because they had publicly criticized the Maupin administration.

An investigating committee of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) accused the Maupin administration of effectively eliminating tenure at Meharry. The committee report, which was published by the AAUP in 2004, concluded that: “In replacing a system of indefinite tenure with tenure for a span of ten years, and with no assurance that the burden of proof in a decision against further retention rests on the administration, the Meharry Medical College administration has effectively scuttled the system of tenure as it is understood generally in American higher education.”