Florida A&M University Names Elmira Mangum As First Woman President
ByFlorida A&M University has selected Elmira Mangum, a top administrator at an Ivy League institution, on Thursday to be the school's 11th and first female president, the Associated Press reported.
Mangum, vice president for budget and planning at Cornell University, was approved as the historically black college's next president during a Board of Trustees meeting on Thursday, The Tampa Bay Times reported.
The board vote in favor of Mangum was 10-2.
"She gets it," The Times quoted trustee Torey Alston as saying before the vote to confirm Mangum. "She is competent. She is strong. Change is tough. But I absolutely stand with Dr. Mangum and I encourage my colleagues to do the same."
Trustees Spurgeon McWilliams and Glen Gilzean Jr. voted against making her president of the institution.
According to The Times, McWilliams said he was disappointed to hear "Mangum admit that she would not make the short list for a presidential search at her current institution."
"If she's not good enough for them, she's not good enough for me at FAMU," McWilliams is quoted as saying by The Times.
Magnum was chosen after FAMU's own alumni association and others pleaded with board members to consider interim president Larry Robinson for the job, but he was not allowed by the board to apply for the position, The AP reported. She was chosen to be the head administrator for Florida's historically black college only a week after submitting her application in.
Mangum beat out the other job candidate, John Ellis Price, a former founding president of the University of North Texas at Dallas, for the position.