But in recent months, Moore and Davenport have both felt the
need to raise concerns about the direction the school is heading under the
current administration.
Moore served as the chairwoman of the BOT presidential
evaluation committee this year. She gave Mangum a “Did Not Meet Expectations”
rating for five of the ten questions in her evaluation.
Davenport has spoken out about what she feels is the poor treatment that the FAMU faculty has received from Mangum. She is the president of the United Faculty Florida at FAMU and membership in the chapter is currently above 50 percent.
“I was 150 percent in agreement of the board of trustees
hiring Dr. Mangum,” Davenport told the Tallahassee Democrat in June. “But in
the last year, she has demonstrated a disrespect for faculty and faculty
concerns.”
Davenport provided even more details about her concerns
about Mangum in a July op-ed in the Florida Times-Union.
“When President Elmira Mangum was interviewing for her post
at FAMU, she agreed that faculty, who teach more than any other faculty in the
system, deserved relief in their course load and a decent raise,” Davenport
wrote. “Once she became president, these concerns were replaced with social
media promotion on Twitter and Facebook, concerts at Carnegie Hall, trips
around the country and world, and filling administrative positions.”
Back in October, Moore and Davenport also expressed their
disappointment about some of the language that has been used in response to
tough questions about FAMU’s leadership.
At an emergency BOT conference call on October 22, Moore
voted against two motions that attempted to terminate Mangum’s contract. But
that did not stop her from repeating some of her criticisms about the
president.
According to an Inside Higher Ed article about the
meeting, “Moore said ‘the language and the tone’ of Mangum’s self-defense ‘further
divides and separates’ the university, and noted that there are repeated
accusations that, due to Mangum’s leadership, FAMU ‘is a hostile work
environment and that there are communication issues.’”
Davenport also responded to the October 22 BOT meeting with comments
that called for an end to various personal attacks that are being used in
conversations about FAMU’s leadership.
“We must create a forum where opposing opinions can be heard
without being told that you do or do not love FAMU,” Davenport told the
Tallahassee Democrat. “It disturbs me that words like bully, misogynist, and so
forth have crept into what should be a professional and business relationship.
Hysterical words and phrases, such as ‘bully,’ have no place in any
professional setting, much less a university. We must move above the
emotionalism and see the practicality of our situation.”