Mangum defends Office of Alumni Affairs personnel changes made by Cotton

On Friday, FAMU President Elmira Mangum wrote the National Alumni Association (NAA) to defend a set of layoffs that took place in the Office of Alumni Affairs (OAA).

NAA President Tommy Mitchell, writing on behalf the NAA Executive Board, had sent Mangum a letter on Tuesday to express concerns about the elimination of the positions formerly held by Regina Gardner and Brandon Hill. He said that Gardner, assistant director of accounting, and Hill, coordinator of alumni engagement and membership services, carried out “duties that are crucial to the FAMU NAA accomplishing its mission and goals for this academic year with success.”

Mangum told Mitchell that she is fine with the personnel changes that Vice-President for Advancement George Cotton made in the OAA.

“The decision to reallocate resources to enhance the Office’s development and resource expansion capability is essential in this limited resource environment,” she wrote.

Mangum said that Cotton was taking steps to make sure that the NAA would continue to receive the support it needs from the university.

“I have been assured by VP Cotton, and his team, that strategies are already underway to ensure that the work of the Foundation and the needs of the NAA will not go unaddressed. In particular, VP Cotton has realigned staff resources to ensure that all invoices, pipeline projects, and outstanding work of the NAA are appropriately assigned and followed through by staff,” she said.

The university president also relayed negative sentiments about the way she was informed of the NAA Executive Board’s concerns related to the OAA.

“Given the gravity of your concerns, I would have preferred to learn about them before they were published in the local news,” Mangum wrote in her letter to Mitchell.