Ex-Maupin supporters seeking to even the score through coup to seat Price

FAMU is a big university. But it’s still much too small to keep certain secrets.  

Many supporters of John E. Maupin, Jr. did a poor job of hiding what they were trying do behind-the-scenes. They made things even worse for themselves after they were discovered. Rather than making the smart choice and shutting up, they decided to get cocky and declare victory before Maupin even applied for the job.

That boasting was replaced with embarrassment when the Rattlers who wanted a clean presidential search process raised so much hell that Maupin got cold feet and dropped his candidacy.

The worst isn’t over, yet. Many FAMUans were excited to hear the praise that trustees such as Karl White, Torey Alston, and Narayan Persaud had for Elmira Mangum’s candidacy, yesterday. But Rattlers need to look beneath the surface of what’s being said out in public.

There is move afoot by some ex-Maupin supporters to get revenge for what happened to their candidate. Mangum, who’s received the backing of many alumni who loudly criticized Maupin, has become a target for that anger.

Even though Mangum received lots of polite compliments from the members of the FAMU presidential search committee before they selected her as a finalist, there are signs that some used that talk as a mere smokescreen to cover the under-the-table dealing aimed at seating John Price in the president’s chair.

The thinking seems to be that if Mangum, a very popular candidate with a strong administrative record, is paired next to the much weaker candidate Price, then most FAMUans will assume that there is no way she could be denied the job.

Those who believe that Price is going to float below-the-radar until the end-of-the-week are in for a rude awakening. He needs to do some serious explaining about what he did in Texas. FAMU alumni across the nation are already discussing the red flags in his past and Rattler Nation is preparing to bring that discussion to this blog’s pages.

The trustees who’ve made up their minds to score revenge with a coup that puts Price in Lee Hall are counting on FAMUans to be uninformed and apathetic. Rattler Country can’t let another presidential search process go down in flames in the 11th hour without a fight.