FAMU going through fifth BOT chair change in less than 14 months

The chair of the FAMU Board of Trustees has changed five times in less than 14 months. Tensions between the administration of FAMU President Elmira Mangum and top Republican officials in Florida have been at the center of all the shake-ups.

Back on August 23, 2014, the Tallahassee Democrat ran a story that included the following comments that Mangum made about FAMU Trustee Rufus Montgomery, who Gov. Rick Scott appointed in 2011: “Reminded that Montgomery is closely affiliated with Gov. Rick Scott, who appointed him to FAMU’s board, Mangum responded: ‘What does that say about the people that appointed him?’”

The governor won his reelection race just over two months after Mangum made that statement about Rufus in the Democrat. Mangum later agreed to continue the tradition of hosting the Inaugural Prayer Breakfast on the FAMU campus. But Rufus, who was then vice-chairman of the Board of Trustees, said the president refused to let the university reimburse the travel expenses of certain trustees who wanted to attend the prayer breakfast.

On March 27, 2015, Scott replaced then-Chairman Chuck Badger, a Mangum supporter, with Robert Woody. Rufus became the acting BOT chair. The BOT elected him to serve the remainder of Badger’s term on April 8, 2015 and then elected him to a full two-year term on August 10, 2015.

Rufus resigned from the BOT chair position on October 23, 2015. The announcement came a day after he supported two unsuccessful attempts to terminate Mangum's contract during a morning conference call. FAMU Student Government Association (SGA) President Tonnette Graham responded by holding a rally at the steps of Lee Hall that called on him to leave the chairmanship. A statement from her office asked Rufus “to step down and allow an unbiased leader to rise and lead our Board.”

SGA Vice-President Justin Bruno then led about 100 students in a march to the Florida Capitol to take the message to Scott. Scott was out-of-town, but the student officials met with members of his staff.

Vice-Chairman Kelvin Lawson became the interim chair. The BOT then elected Cleve Warren to become the new chair on November 20, 2015.

The Florida Board of Governors (BOG) replaced Warren with Harold Mills on May 12, 2016. The end of Warren’s time on the BOT came after he chose to keep silent about Mangum’s slights against GOP officials in the state of Florida.

One of the most recent problems was the way Mangum dealt with the GOP-majority Florida Legislature over FAMU Day at the Capitol. Mangum’s office announced that February 4, 2016 would be date for the event. But the Tallahassee Democrat later reported that Mangum had chosen to skip FAMU Day at the Capitol in order to participate in a set of activities in Washington, DC, including White House National Prayer Breakfast.

Members of the majority Republican Florida Legislature had been asked to set their schedules for a February 4 event date requested by the FAMU administration only to later learn that the FAMU president and BOT chairman preferred to spend time with a Democratic U.S. senator and a Democratic U.S. president instead of them on that day.

Mangum ending up cutting her DC trip short and rushing to FAMU Day at the Capitol after a February 2 Capitol News Service report that said: “Many close to higher education say Mangum is snubbing lawmakers at a time when she’s barely recovered from efforts to fire her.”

Graham supported the unanimous BOG vote to replace Warren during her last meeting on that board. Lawson is now the acting chair of the FAMU BOT again.