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FAMU Effectively Fires Gainous

Photo credit: The Famuan President Fred Gainous remained reserved as members of the FAMU Board of Trustees voted on his fate.

By Malcolm Glover
Black College Wire

Florida A&M University President Fred Gainous' vision of "Creating One FAMU" might have come to an end. The Board of Trustees voted 9 to 4 to terminate his contract effective Jan. 1 unless board members give Gainous a unanimous vote of support during their Dec. 14 meeting.

After hearing the complaints of many alumni during the portion of the Sept. 28 board meeting for public comments, Trustee Challis Lowe moved to end Gainous' tenure immediately, with Trustee William Jennings seconding the motion.

"Today, we have finally come to grips with the fact that we need a change in leadership at the university," said Lowe. "In my opinion, Gainous is a gentle and nice person, but this is not about him as a person. This is about the toughness that he needs to have as a leader in order to make decisions and tell us as a board what needs to be done."

FAMU, with 10,803 students, is one of the most highly regarded historically black colleges and universities, ranking no. 6 this year and last year on the Black Enterprise magazine list of "50 best colleges for African Americans." It was the highest ranking public school on the list.

The move to terminate Gainous stems from a variety of problems, including failure to hire college deans and an effective administrative team in a timely fashion; poor management of the athletic departments; a failed move to Division 1-A and subsequent NCAA violations; a State Auditor General's report that showed FAMU's bank statements to be untimely, incomplete and prone to error; and late financial statements that held up paychecks to top administrative officials.

Lowe's motion for immediate termination was amended with the help of Student Government Association President Virgil Miller, and became a vote to terminate Gainous Jan. 1 if he did not have unanimous support from the board by then. Miller said he offered the amendment to lay the groundwork for and to ensure a smooth and peaceful transition if the president were relieved of his duties.

"I proposed this motion to ensure that the day-to-day operations of the university won't be negatively impacted by an abrupt change in leadership," said Miller, a second-year graduate allied health student. "However, we cannot place the blame of our university's problems on one person. We must also address our shortcomings as a board."

Gainous said he was still ready, willing and able to lead FAMU. "I feel I have accumulated enough experience to be an effective leader," the president said. "The changes that are required at FAMU today are as significant as the changes over the last 50 years. . . . We must remain committed to meet FAMU's challenges."

Gainous, who attended the university as an undergraduate, came into office July 1, 2002, with the goal of healing divisions that wracked the institution. "We've always followed the motto, 'Excellence With Caring.' Well, I have another motto that I want to add to that, 'Creating One FAMU,'" Gainous has said.

Students, faculty, alumni and friends of the university filled the Grand Ballroom and voiced their concerns about the leadership and the direction of the university.

"It is our right as stakeholders to ensure that the president does not have another eight years to mismanage and make a mockery of the University," said Alvin Bryant, president of the FAMU National Alumni Association. Alumni "demand an effective new president with a vision that will move this university forward. . . . Let it be known that thousands of graduates of this university no longer have confidence in this president's ability to lead the university."

Many of Gainous' opponents said the university was not living up to its potential and had become virtually obscure on the national scene because of the president's lack of leadership.

Trustee Barney Bishop said he was concerned that too many trustees were "pointing fingers" instead of being held accountable for their own actions.

"Negative news doesn't always need to be aired out at these meetings," he said. "This board, under current leadership, has aired more of [the school's] dirty laundry than has ever happened before," Bishop said.

Malcolm Glover is a student at Florida A&M University who writes for The Famuan. He can be reached at [email protected].

Posted Sept. 29, 2004