Grable takes Mangum to task for having insufficient data to support assessment claims

For the second consecutive year, FAMU Faculty Senate President Bettye A. Grable said President Elmira Mangum “Does Not Meet” expectations in eight categories of her annual evaluation. Last year, the evaluation had a total of ten categories. There were eleven categories for the 2015-2016 year.

Grable said Mangum met expectations for Financial Management and Personal Characteristics and Values. She gave Mangum an “Exceeds” expectations rating for the Work Plan category.

But in the rest of the eight categories, Grable gave Mangum the lowest possible mark. Those areas were Annual Priorities and Goals, Strategic Leadership, Educational Leadership, Organizational Management, Fundraising, External Relations, Internal Relations, and Board of Governance Relations.

In most of those categories, Grable faulted Mangum for providing little or no comparative data to support the high ratings that she gave herself on her 2015-2016 presidential self-assessment.

Under Strategic Leadership, Grable wrote that “the President offered some good comments here, however, there were five questions asked under this evaluation factor that were not answered in the performance comments section. In addition, no comparative data was offered to explain the impact of her activities since becoming President in 2014.”

Grable had similar comments in the External Relations category. She said that “the President must provide more comparative data showing more consistency regarding external relations and to share information related to the University's return on investment of her external relations activities.”

Back in 2015, one of Grable’s biggest criticisms of Mangum was the lack of shared governance by her administration. Grable’s 2016 evaluation said that problem still is far from being fixed. She wrote that Mangum needs “to follow the tenets of shared governance in spirit and actions per the University Constitution and By-Laws.”

Grable added that Mangum should “have the President's Union negotiations team to always meet as agreed upon with FAMU-UFF and show greater adherence to the Collective Bargaining Agreement, the University Academic Constitution, and to follow the rules and regulations in the Faculty Handbook.”

The FAMU United Faculty of Florida (UFF) chapter has declared an impasse in the current collective bargaining process with the Mangum administration.

“For over eight months, we have been coming to the table ready to represent our faculty and conclude negotiations; that is not the case for your team,” FAMU UFF President Elizabeth Davenport wrote in a letter to Mangum in July. “In fact, most proposals have been made by UFF and then ignored, and when items are proposed by your team, they usually involve gross infringement of academic freedom.”