Dive Brief:
- Heavy-handed oversight by Florida A&M's board of trustees, which culminated in the chairman’s resignation last week, has some wondering whether the root of the problem is HBCU-specific governance or financial troubles.
- The Chronicle of Higher Education reports some analysts see the board as micromanaging, requiring President Elmira Mangum to meet with the chairman for three hours each week and send weekly updates on her decision-making.
- Others, though, say that level of involvement by the board is common at colleges with financial troubles where everyone is pointing fingers of blame — and at Florida A&M, Mangum didn’t help by publicly criticizing the board’s actions.
Dive Insight:
A question of sexism also reverberates in the Florida A&M case. Mangum, who took over as president after serving as vice president for budget and planning at Cornell, is single. The board approved a provision in her employment contract restricting her from cohabitating in the president’s residence with anyone with whom she was involved romantically.
The idea of micromanaging has been discussed lately because of the actions of legislatures, as well. In North Carolina, where Margaret Spellings was just chosen as the UNC system’s next president, the legislature attempted to control the selection process by passing a law that wasn’t signed by the governor in time to make a difference, but created the impression of a power battle nonetheless.
Of course, Florida A&M's troubles aren't exactly unique. HBCUs were notably overrepresented on a U.S. Department of Education watch list earlier this year, and their funding has been called "separate but unequal." A number of the nation's oldest HBCUs are struggling, with the prominent Howard University often finding itself in the spotlight in recent years.