Mangum dodges BOT question on documents about FAMU-FSU College of Engineering

UPDATE (8/5/15): A memo posted to famu.edu shows that Vice-President for Communications Jimmy Miller wrote a response to the Board of Trustees on July 24, 2015. He said the differences between the two documents were an unintentional error. He also said that his office would send the correct document to the press "immediately."

ORIGINAL STORY (8/4/15): At a FAMU Board of Trustees committee meeting last month, President Elmira Mangum dodged a question about a set of documents related to the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering (COE).

Chairman Rufus Montgomery handed out two documents during the July 21 meeting of the Special Committee on Governance. According to the draft minutes of the committee, “one document dated May 22, 2015 was sent to the Trustees and another document dated May 22, 2015 was sent to the media.”

Rufus said that the document that the administration sent to the press went out on July 10. According to him, both of the documents dated May 22 referred to the May 20 meeting where the Joint College of Engineering Governance Council passed a resolution to shift the COE fiscal agent duties from FAMU to FSU. The FAMU Board of Trustees did not take a vote to approve that shift.

“If you look at the first document, it says ‘May 22nd. Notes From My Desk from Elmira Mangum.’ These are supposed to be the same document, but the document that she sent to the Board is one line, just basically saying she had the meeting,” Rufus said. “The document that was sent to the press is eight lines and five sentences with much more detail, and so, as the reporters were reading, they were thinking, well, it sounds like she actually did inform the Board.”

He added that: “If a document is sent to the Board, and then the press requests that document and that document is changed or altered significantly, I think that deserves an explanation. And so I asked the question earlier with regard to the Committee, but I think we’re owed an explanation.”

Mangum said that she could not give the Board of Trustees an explanation at that time.

“I wish I could, but this is the first I’ve seen the two documents side by side, so I cannot respond to it,” she said. “So what I can do is offer an explanation later when I talk with communication staff that responded to the press’s request.”

Trustee Torey Alston then asked Mangum the last question about the issue.

“So as a take-away, you will give us something back in writing to members of the Board?” he asked.

“Yes,” Mangum said.

The FAMU Board of Trustees will meet this week on Wednesday and Thursday.