FAMU President Elmira Mangum steps down with six months remaining on contract

TALLAHASSEE | For the third time in a decade, Florida A&M University has a vacancy at the top.

The FAMU Board of Trustees approved a separation agreement Thursday that called for President Elmira Mangum to step down immediately. Mangum will be paid her regular $425,000 annual salary through the duration of her contract, which expires March 31. She is also eligible for a yearlong sabbatical and to return to FAMU as a faculty member.

The vote was 10-1. Student Body President Jaylen Smith cast the lone dissenting vote. Immediately afterward Mangum said she accepted the board's decision.

"I believe it is clear that there is no way forward," she said.

Larry Robinson, who has twice acted as interim president, was asked to serve in that role again.

The board approved the separation agreement ironed out with Mangum's attorney despite the objections of some students and faculty. Hired in 2014, she was the university's 11th full-time president and first woman to serve in the role.

Mangum also will receive $7,500 in moving expenses to vacate the president's house on campus in the next month and $6,500 for attorney fees.

Mangum's tenure at FAMU was rocky from the start, and she had tense relationships with a few trustees. Some of that acrimony subsided when Gov. Rick Scott and the Board of Governors that oversees state universities overhauled FAMU's board over the last year.

However, it became clear the board would not renew or extend her contract after she received poor-to-middling marks on her second annual review, which was finalized in August. She embraced students, Provost Marcella David and other well-wishers on her way out after the vote.

Mangum said she feels good about her tenure at FAMU, which U.S. News & World Report recently named the nation's top public historically black college or university.

"The university is in a better position than it was when I came," she said. "I think the students are certainly more focused on completion, and overall the institution, I think nationally, is in a better place."

Trustee Thomas Dortch, who chaired the special committee that negotiated Mangum's exit, said it was the best way to move forward with dignity and respect for all involved. He said an agreement was the best strategy once it became clear that a majority of trustees would not agree to renew her contract beyond March 31.

"At the end of the day, this board has to have the courage to make a decision based on what it thinks is in the best interest" of the university, he said.

Tia Mitchell: (850) 933-1321