But the FAMU students don’t currently have an elected SGA president to
represent them on the Board of Trustees (BOT) due to Mangum’s mishandling of the student elections. In April, Mangum announced that Jaylen Smith would serve
as the “interim” SGA president. The FAMUan reported on April 27 that Smith, who
had just elected as the Student Senate president, would be the interim SGA
president because of the delay in finalizing the SGA presidential election.
Smith didn’t run for the SGA presidency in the spring when he
was junior, probably because he knew he would have lost to Bruno. He’s now
become the biggest yes-man on the BOT for the FAMU president who helped him get
an office that he didn’t win.
The FAMU-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.”
The BOT invited NAA President Lt. Col. Gregory Clark to
submit comments on Mangum’s job performance as part of its
annual evaluation process for her. He mentioned the negative effect that recent decisions by Mangum
have had on the NAA’s work for FAMU.
Mangum’s best evaluation ratings on the BOT came from Smith,
who FAMU students didn’t elect to be their BOT member. That hasn’t stopped
Smith from suggesting that he is the individual that FAMU students have chosen
to speak for them. Smith is claiming that the students want Mangum to stay at the university.
“Our students want Dr. Mangum and believe the university needs
her during this crucial time,” Smith wrote in an op-ed that the Tallahassee
Democrat posted yesterday. The link to that op-ed was on the official FAMU Twitter and Facebook accounts that are managed by an Office of Communications filled with staffers who might have to soon look for new jobs if Mangum leaves.
If the students were really solidly in favor of Mangum like
Smith claims, then they would have elected Victor Chrispin as the SGA
president. He is seen by many as a big supporter of Mangum. But most of the students voted for Bruno, the
vice-president of Tonnette Graham.
Tensions rose between Mangum and Graham when the student
body president refused to be a yes-woman for the administration. Graham
supported a “no confidence” vote in former Athletic Director Kellen Winslow,
Sr., gave Mangum average marks on her 2015 evaluation, and voted against
awarding a bonus to Mangum.
At her last meeting as a member of the Florida Board of
Governors, Graham also voted to replace BOT Chairman Cleve Warren, who was
Mangum’s biggest supporter on the board.
Tonnette Graham and Justin Bruno were the top-voted
candidates in their SGA presidential elections because the students knew they
would do what’s best for FAMU. Smith is an unelected placeholder who looks like
he’s just trying to keep an office that he didn’t obtain through a vote of the student body.
