Back on November 7, 2014, the FAMU Board of Trustees
Athletics Oversight Committee voted to recommend that the full Board of
Trustees pass a policy requiring two trustees to be appointed to the advisory
committee. The motion did not state any intention to restrict the two trustees
from being voting members.
Mangum told the committee she thought that proposal was
inappropriate. She then went to SACSCOC President Belle Wheelan and asked if what the committee had requested was consistent with the accrediting
organization’s rules. Wheelan informed her that trustees may only serve as
nonvoting members of search committees for positions that work under the
president.
SACS is the regional accrediting organization that monitors whether FAMU is in compliance with standards set by the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE). It strictly prohibits university trustees from making personnel decisions below the level of the university presidency.
At a November 17 board conference call, Rufus blasted Mangum for getting
Wheelan involved.
“I think it was irresponsible for the president…to go to the
president of SACS,” he said.
What Rufus said was a direct insult to SACS and the job it
does for the USDOE. The comments sounded like an attempt to tell the
accrediting organization that what the FAMU trustees do is none of SACS’ business.
That is a big problem because SACS usually sends a list of
questions to a university board whenever it has a reason to believe trustees might have
violated an accreditation standard. But if the chairman and other members of
the board have records of acting like they don’t want SACS to hold them
responsible for following the rules, then that would be a good reason for SACS
to doubt that the board is being up-front and fully cooperative.
The FAMU Board of Trustees already has a terrible reputation
when it comes to staying in line with SACS rules. Back in 2007, SACS said the
board was in noncompliance with Standard 2.2, which states basic
responsibilities that boards must carry out.
FAMU’s board has operated in a very incompetent and
dysfunctional way during most of the years since its creation in 2001 because
it has had so many low-quality trustees. The current FAMU board chairman’s
disrespect toward SACS is another reason to believe that the leadership
situation is only getting worse.