“Her leadership was also responsible for the elevation of
FAMU to an R-2 (high research activity) Carnegie classification,” the petition
says.
But if the petitioners took some time to read the
information on the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education
website and FAMU.edu, they might be able to see why that claim isn’t true.
The Carnegie Classification webpage, which is hosted by Indiana University, states that “these data represent the time period of 2013-14.”
Mangum started her contract at FAMU on April 1, 2014. The work she did between then and end of the year on June 30, 2014 wasn’t what got FAMU to “R2: Doctoral Universities – Higher research activity”
According to the Carnegie Classification definitions, the
“Doctoral Universities” classification “includes institutions that awarded at
least 20 research/scholarship doctoral degrees during the update year (this
does not include professional practice doctoral-level degrees, such as the JD,
MD, PharmD, DPT, etc.).”
Mangum didn’t create any of the Ph.D. programs that let
FAMU qualify for that classification. All the doctoral programs that
contributed to that were already in place before she came to FAMU.
The explanation for “Level of Research Activity” on the
Carnegie webpage states: “Doctoral universities were assigned to one of three
categories based on a measure of research activity. The research activity scale
includes the following correlates of research activity: research &
development (R&D) expenditures in science and engineering; R&D
expenditures in non-S&E fields; S&E research staff (postdoctoral
appointees and other non-faculty research staff with doctorates); doctoral
conferrals in humanities fields, in social science fields, in STEM (science,
technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields, and in other fields (e.g.,
business, education, public policy, social work).”
The budget for 2013-2014 that funded R&D, S&E
research staff, and all the FAMU Ph.D. programs was also in place before Mangum came to
FAMU.
Last month, Mangum presented her goals for May 2016 to April
2017 to the FAMU Board of Trustees. They didn’t include any plans for new Ph.D.
programs to help FAMU move to R1.
Mangum’s poor handling of the FAMU-FSU College of
Engineering (COE) has now put FAMU’s future in R2 in danger. Most of the Ph.D.
programs at FAMU are in the COE. They are: Biomedical Engineering, Chemical
Engineering, Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering,
and Industrial Engineering.
FAMU was in control of the core operating budget for the COE
from 1987 until 2014. But in 2015 the new Joint College of Engineering
Governance Council started to claim that it is in charge of the COE budget.
Back at a May 20 meeting, the Joint Council unanimously voted to move the
$12.9M COE core operating budget from FAMU to FSU.
Mangum supported those changes and didn’t let the FAMU BOT
know before those things happened. The FSU representatives and Board of
Governors (BOG) Chancellor Marshall Criser, III can now just outvote FAMU on
budget decisions and make cuts that could hurt the Ph.D. programs FAMU has in
the COE.
The FAMU BOT should see through the attempt to give Mangum
credit for the move to R2 and understand how her actions have threatened FAMU’s
ability to remain in R2.