In 2007, Lawson rallied members of the majority Republican
state Senate to block the reappointment of Challis Lowe, the chairwoman of
the FAMU Board of Trustees (BOT).
Lowe was one of the biggest supporters of former Interim
President Castell Bryant, defending her even as her administration received the
first and only qualified state audits in the history of FAMU.
According to the Miami-Herald: “Lawson had cited continuing financial problems at FAMU during her tenure as the reason for opposing her candidacy, in addition to a controversial vote against FAMU's incoming president, James Ammons. The trustees approved Ammons as president earlier this year, but by just one vote. The board was split, and Lowe was among the six trustees who voted for the other candidate.”
Lawson’s efforts to hold Lowe accountable for her poor
oversight attracted fierce opposition from the St. Petersburg Times’ editorial
board. When he pointed out that Lowe’s appointment had not met the deadline for
Florida Senate confirmation in 2006, Times editorial writers accused him of “political
interference.”
But much to the disappointment of Lowe’s backers on the
Board of Governors and the Times editorial staff, Lawson succeeded in preventing
the then-chairwoman from being confirmed for a second term in April 2007. Two months later, the
Southern Association of Colleges and Schools verified that FAMU’s BOT had been
asleep-at-the-wheel during the Lowe-era, citing the lack of an “active
policy-making body” as one of the reasons behind its decision to place FAMU on
probation.
FAMU no longer has alumni state senators who are strong enough to
follow-through on battling trustees who they say are creating problems for the
university.
A Capital News Service story on October 29 reported that
Florida Senate Minority Leader Arthenia Joyner, a FAMU alumna, wanted all the FAMU trustees
who tried to fire President Elmira Mangum a week earlier to leave the board.
But Joyner later backed down and voted in favor of the Florida Senate Higher Education Committee’s recommendation that Robert Woody, who moved to fire Mangum “without cause” and with “no confidence” on October 22,
be confirmed for a term that ends on January 6, 2020.