FAMU trustees try to save face after dirty, dysfunctional presidential search process

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Had the behind-the-scenes deal-making at FAMU gone as planned, Elmira Mangum would have never become one of the two finalists for the university presidency.

Ahead of the application deadline, Rattler Nation learned that certain FAMU-associated individuals who were eager to please Gov. Rick Scott had passed an unofficial short list of presidential candidates up the ranks. That list had a Washington, DC candidate, a Georgia candidate, and a Texas candidate.

It was said that the DC candidate was former Howard University President Patrick Swygert and that the Georgia candidate was Morehouse School of Medicine President John E. Maupin, Jr.

Swygert was liked because of his friendly working relationship with the George W. Bush White House between 2001 and 2008 (his last year at Howard). The administration chose him for a number of appointments, including chairman of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Capital Financing Program Advisory Board (2002-2004). Back in 2005, he hosted Bush in a campus visit that led to a student protest.

Maupin also got along well with the Bush White House. Bush appointed him to serve on the U.S. Social Security Advisory Board from 2005-2010. His success in effectively eliminating the tenure system at Meharry Medical College also fit with the direction in which Scott is pushing public education in Florida.

The identity of the Texas candidate wasn’t clear before the application deadline. But word began to spread that it was John Ellis Price, who had led the University of North Texas’ Dallas campus from 2001-2012. Price was on good terms with Gov. Rick Perry, who had served as the Texas lieutenant governor under Bush. Price enthusiastically applauded a number of Perry educational reform ideas that Rick Scott wants to bring to Florida, including a proposal for a $10,000 college degree.

But Elmira Mangum’s candidacy was a different story.

Mangum contributed $2,300 to then-U.S. Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign in 2007. There were also grumblings that she was a senior administrator at a “liberal” Ivy League school.  

The unofficial short list starting falling apart when Swygert ultimately declined to apply and Maupin withdrew his application in the wake of FAMU alumni criticism over his past treatment of Meharry’s faculty. There was then a last-minute push to seat Price, but trustees began to realize that his past disrespectful treatment of his Dallas faculty members would lead to an ugly public battle if they picked him. That had the potential to become an embarrassment for Rick Scott during his 2014 reelection campaign.

Some trustees who had originally planned to go along with the unofficial candidate’s list tried to save face by praising Mangum’s selection as president. But Mangum shouldn’t expect all 10 of the trustees who voted for her to defend her against the politically-motivated attacks that are likely to come in the near future.

Former Gov. Jeb Bush didn’t like then-FAMU President Frederick S. Humphries’ cozy relationship with the Democratic Party or the Clintons. Back in 1996, Humphries hosted First Lady Hillary Clinton on the FAMU campus. In July 1998, U.S. President Bill Clinton asked Humphries to run for Florida education commissioner (which was still an elected position at that time), but Humphries respectfully declined. Humphries was pushed out of the FAMU presidency just under two years after Jeb became the Florida governor in 1999.

Former FAMU President James Ammons was viewed with scorn by numerous ex-Jeb supporters who backed the 2010 Rick Scott campaign. Ammons was faulted for permitting the Marching 100 to perform at a 2007 Obama campaign event in Ybor City and giving the green light for two Obama 2008 rallies to take place on the Tallahassee campus.

Back in 2012, political influences told FAMU board members not to appoint Larry Robinson to the interim presidency. Robinson formerly served as Obama’s assistant secretary of commerce.

Mangum is in for a hard fight. But FAMU has been here before with previous presidents.

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