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| “Interim” student trustee Jaylen Smith, far left, listens as
President Elmira Mangum speaks |
Mangum’s best job ratings came from the student trustee who
wasn’t elected by his peers to represent them on the Board of Trustees (BOT).
In April, Mangum announced that Jaylen Smith would serve as
the “interim” Student Government Association (SGA) president. The FAMUan
reported on April 27 that Smith, who was just elected as the Student Senate
president, would be the interim SGA president because of the delay in
finalizing the SGA presidential election.
Smith was the only trustee who didn’t give Mangum a “Does Not Meet” expectations rating on any of the evaluation categories. He actually gave her three “Exceeds” expectations ratings, which was the most out of all the board members.
Under the “Personal Characteristics and Values” category,
Smith wrote that “FAMU was awarded $25.6 million in performance funding by the
Florida Board of Governors [BOG].” But FAMU really received $11,509,132 in
performance funds. The remaining $14,066,717 was “institutional investment”
money from the legislature that FAMU was able to keep because it met minimum
performance standards.
Most of the “marks of excellence” that FAMU received on the BOG
performance-funding metrics were actually based on data or work from the
2013-2014 year. Mangum began her contract on April 1, 2014 with about four
months to go before the end of the fiscal year on June 30, 2014. The only
“excellence” area that was entirely from Mangum’s first full year in 2014-2015
came from “Bachelor’s degrees awarded within programs of strategic emphasis.”
That went down by 1.5 percent.
Smith didn’t use the title “interim” in his title when he
emailed his individual evaluation in to the BOT liaison on July 18. He simply called himself
the SGA “President University Board of Trustee” even though FAMU students
didn’t elect him to that position.
The FAMU administration also plans to hold an “SGA Inauguration”
ceremony on August 21 despite the fact that the presidential election hasn’t
been settled.
SGA Vice-President Justin Bruno won the SGA presidential
election in February. But Mangum supported a decision by the Student Supreme
Court to order a redo of the entire SGA presidential election after the losing
candidate, Victor Chrispin, submitted an appeal that claimed there were
problems with the election process at the law school in Orlando.
“Dr. Elmira Mangum agreed with the (opponents’) appeal,”
Bruno said in a quote published in the Tallahassee Democrat. “That is to manipulate the
election on behalf of the (FAMU) administration and other administrators.”
On Thursday, March 24, Leon County Circuit Judge John Cooper
granted a request by Bruno for a temporary injunction to stop a redo of the
whole SGA presidential election in both Tallahassee and the law school campus
in Orlando. Cooper agreed with Bruno that the new election should only take
place in Orlando where voting-day problems were reported.
Mangum cancelled the new election that was scheduled to take
place at the law school on Tuesday, March 29. On the next day, she asked the BOT to support an appeal of the decision by Cooper.
The BOT narrowly approved the request by a 7-5 vote. The 1st District Court of
Appeal found on August 15 that the FAMU administration didn’t break any
laws when it backed the Student Supreme Court’s decision and threw out Cooper’s
injunction.
FAMU hasn’t made an announcement about when a new election
will finally be held. But the fact that the BOT said Mangum only met 64
percent of expectations overall shows that even Smith’s help isn’t enough to
give her a boost as she continues her uphill battle to get a contract extension. Mangum’s employment agreement is set to end April 1, 2017.