Last month JBHE reported that the board of trustees at Florida A&M University voted not to renew the contract of President Elmira Mangum that was scheduled to expire on March 31. Now the board by a vote of 10 to 1 has agreed to a settlement where President Mangum will leave her post immediately but will be paid through the end of her current contract. President Mangum is eligible for a one-year sabbatical and can elect to return to the university as a tenured faculty member.
Dr. Mangum was named the 11th president of the historically Black educational institution in 2014. She was the first woman to hold the position on a permanent basis. Before being named president. Dr. Mangum was vice president for planning and budget at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. She also served on the faculty at the Johnson School of Management at Cornell. Earlier in her career, she was senior associate provost at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, vice provost at the University at Buffalo in New York, and operations specialist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
Dr. Mangum is a graduate of North Carolina Central University in Durham, North Carolina. She holds two master’s degrees from the University of Wisconsin and a doctorate in educational leadership from the University at Buffalo.
The board of trustees named Larry Robinson as interim president of Florida A&M University. He has served in that role twice before. Dr. Robinson had been serving as chair of the university’s Strategic Planning Task Force. Over the years, he has served as provost and vice president of academic affairs, chief operating officer, special assistant to the president, professor, and director of the Environmental Sciences Institute. In 2010, Dr. Robinson took a leave of absence from the university to serve as assistant secretary for conservation and management at the U.S. Commerce Department.
In accepting the appointment, Dr. Robinson stated that “FAMU has a long tradition of excellence, and I am committed to ensuring that, that tradition continues as we focus on the future.”
Dr. Robinson is a summa cum laude graduate of the University of Memphis. He earned a Ph.D. in nuclear chemistry from Washington University in St. Louis.
