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Last week, FAMU President Elmira Mangum survived two votes by the University trustees to fire her. Today, as Mike Vasilinda tells us, the President spoke with reporters for the first time since the failed voted.

No questions were off limits, but video was not allowed as FAMU President Elmira Mangum met with about a dozen reporters. Mangum said she was caught off guard by the move to end her Presidency..

“I was shocked, surprised, disappointed. All of that, but not deterred” she told reporters.

The showdown last week brought several hundred students to the Capitol in protest…Mangum called it:

“gratifying.

The initial grounds for dismissing her were questions about a newly constructed garage at the Presidents home and a new eleven thousand dollar front door. The President says she authorized neither.

“The garage was built. I didn’t commission a garage. It’s a university facility.”

The University System Board of Governors, which oversees and literally overlooks the FAMU campus has sent a message that if the Board and President can’t resolve their differences, they’ll solve the problem.”

In a weekend op-ed, Univeristy Governor Alan Levin said patience is thin at the Board of Governors, adding that everyone should be embarrassed by the showdown.

Pressed for a reaction, Mangum said she did not believe University leadership had become dysfunctional. “I don’t thinks it’s failed. I will say that. I don’t think our leadership has failed, and I think that was the words and term used. I think we are in the process of negotiating how we come to solutions of out differing points of view on how we move FAMU forward” she says

The board overseeing all universities meets later this week in south Florida.

The Board Chair seeking Mangum’s dismissal stepped down after the failed votes, but he remains a Trustee until January, when six of the 11 positions are up for reappointment.