No announcement on rescheduling SGA election as commencement nears on April 30th

FAMU SGA Vice-President Justin Bruno from the "FAMU is For You" video

The official Youtube page for Florida A&M University (FAMU) posted a promotional video on Tuesday that featured Student Government Association (SGA) Vice-President Justin Bruno. Bruno won the SGA presidential election in February. But it’s still uncertain who will be the next SGA leader even though Spring commencement is just eight days away.

Mangum supported a decision by the Student Supreme Court to order a redo of the entire SGA presidential election after the losing candidate, Victor Chrispin, submitted an appeal that claimed there were problems with the election process at the law school in Orlando.

On Thursday, March 24, Leon County Circuit Judge John Cooper granted a request by Bruno for a temporary injunction to stop a redo of the whole SGA presidential election in both Tallahassee and the law school campus in Orlando. Cooper agreed with Bruno that the new election should only take place in Orlando where voting-day problems were reported.

President Elmira Mangum cancelled the new election that was scheduled to take place at the law school on Tuesday, March 29. On the next day, she asked the FAMU Board of Trustees (BOT) to support an appeal of the decision by Cooper. The BOT narrowly approved the request by a 7-5 vote.

The FAMU administration hasn’t announced any plans to try and make sure the students are able to have the new SGA election before the graduation ceremony on Saturday, April 30. That date will be one month after the BOT vote to appeal the circuit court decision.

FAMU probably won’t schedule a new SGA election during the summer because most students will be away from the campuses in Tallahassee and Orlando. So if the students aren’t able to vote again before commencement, then it’s unlikely that either of the two candidates who ran for the SGA presidency this Spring will be on the BOT between May and July.

That would result in the FAMU students not having an elected BOT representative from the Spring elections when the big date of June 30, 2016 arrives. That is the deadline for the BOT to start a discussion on whether Mangum’s employment will be extended.

According to the BOT contract with Mangum: “Dr. Mangum and the Board’s representative shall confer by no later than June 30, 2016 regarding the renewal or extension of this Agreement and if such renewal or extension does not occur, the Parties agree to allow the natural expiration of the term of the Agreement regarding Dr. Mangum’s service as President.”

Mangum began a three-year contract on April 1, 2014.