McKnight placed in the middle of Mangum, BOT leadership dispute over SACS rules

The dispute between FAMU President Elmira Mangum and the Board of Trustees leadership over the rules of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) has put Avery McKnight between a rock and a hard place.

Back on August 5, the chairman and vice-chairman of the Board of Trustees challenged Mangum’s claim that the shift of the $12,996,539 core operating budget of the College of Engineering (COE) to Florida State University (FSU) was a “management decision.”

The Joint College of Engineering Governance Council unanimously passed a resolution to make that change during a meeting on May 20. The decision was made without a vote of approval by the FAMU Board of Trustees.

Vice-Chairman Kelvin Lawson said that “Section 3: Comprehensive Standards” of the SACS rules could give the Board of Trustees a way to challenge what the Joint Council did.  “Section 3” includes a rule that says the policy-making job of the board of a school must remain distinct from the job of the administration to oversee the execution of policies.

“What was done in the Joint Council was a setting of policy for both schools…We do have recourse on this issue if we choose as a board,” Lawson said.

Mangum disagreed with him and said that there was no issue with the SACS rules because she thought the transfer of the COE operating budget to FSU “was a management decision.”

But Lawson and Chairman Rufus Montgomery disagreed.

“When it is a $13 million decision, that is a policy decision,” the chairman said.

The chairman and vice-chairman asked a number of FAMU offices, including the Office of the General Counsel, to look into the issue. They made the request just minutes after the Special Committee on Governance (which includes all the members of the board) approved a proposal to have the general counsel report to the Board of Trustees in addition to the president.

McKnight, the vice-president for legal affairs in general counsel, is now in a very tough situation. If he comes to the conclusion that the Board of Trustees chairman and vice-chairman are right about the COE operating budget shift being a policy decision, then that might have a negative effect on his future in the Mangum administration.

At the August 5 Special Committee on Governance meeting, Rufus said that Vice-President for Finance and Administration Dale Cassidy had called him and asked him to consider a potential deal to replace McKnight with a new general counsel. According to the Tallahassee Democrat, the chairman claimed “he was told the call came at the request of Mangum.”

Mangum refused to give a “yes or no” answer when the chairman and vice-chairman asked her if she had any knowledge about the alleged call. That public conversation ended without a clear answer on whether there are moves underway in the university administration to replace McKnight for political reasons.

But if McKnight comes to the conclusion that the president is right about the COE operating budget shift being a management decision, then that might also have a negative effect on his future in his current job. Mangum told the Florida Times-Union on Monday that she thinks the chairman is trying to make a case to fire her. If she is eventually fired, and some members of the board are angry at McKnight, then that could hurt McKnight’s relationship with the next president that will be selected by the Board of Trustees.

McKnight probably won't be able to handle this dispute in a way that will be safe for his career at FAMU. All he can do is make the recommendation that he feels is right and then prepare for the possibility of unfair consequences.