In a statement to The FAMUan, President James H. Ammons revealed that the university has executed “a non-disciplinary employment action” in response to the findings of an internal investigation concerning Chief Financial Officer Teresa Hardee’s use of business hours to travel to her out-of-town graduate school classes.
Hardee, who is pursuing an executive doctorate in higher education from the University of Pennsylvania, received permission from FAMU to attend Thursday through Saturday classes in Philadelphia. According to The FAMUan, the investigation resulted from an anonymous complaint that the amount of hours for which Hardee was approved “to travel to the University of Pennsylvania did not match the amount of time Hardee was approved to take leave.”
The problem stemmed from the fact that on her Wednesday travel days to Philadelphia, Hardee utilized a “work-from-home status.”
“I did not see the need to take annual leave for the days that I traveled to Pennsylvania to attend class the next day was because I was in fact working on FAMU business even while working from home on the Wednesdays in question,” Hardee said.
Hardee explained that her job requires her “to be on call virtually 24 hours a day.” She estimates that she has worked more than 4,000 hours above the standard 40-hour workweek since she arrived at FAMU in 2007.
After receiving the general counsel’s report on the matter, Ammons decided to rescind 34 hours of Hardee’s vacation time.
Ammons added in his statement to The FAMUan that Hardee is an “outstanding administrator who has provided strong leadership in her division” and that “she remains an outstanding member of my leadership team.”
Back in 2007, Hardee was given the task of getting FAMU’s financial books in shape after a string of bad audits. FAMU had received its first ever qualified financial audits from the state in 2004-2005 and 2005-2006. FAMU had also gotten the worst operational audit in school history in 2006 with 35 findings.
Since Hardee’s arrival at FAMU, the university has gone back to receiving unqualified annual financial audits. FAMU also went from having the highest number of operational audit findings in the State University System of Florida in 2006 to having some of the lowest numbers in 2008 and 2010.