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.
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.