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The Tail Wagging the Dog
The situation at Florida A&M University between the governing board and the president is an embarrassment to Florida A&M's trustees. At issue is president James H. Ammons' terms of employment. His three-year contract is "evergreen," meaning it is automatically renewed, in this case every morning. It stipulates a 25% to 35% annual bonus, dependent on meeting certain institutional goals, on top of a base salary of $325,000. Aside from flagrant or criminal breaches of contract only a supermajority of the board (9 out of 13 members) can fire Mr. Ammons without cause and would be forced to provide severance equal to three years compensation - a little under a million dollars not factoring in bonuses.
The trustees would like to renegotiate the president's compact, only they can't because the peculiar arrangement precludes the board from initiating contractual negotiations outside of seeking termination. In other words, trustees can't negotiate new terms unless they try to fire Ammons outright or the board gains his consent to enter into talks.
"It strikes everybody as the tail wagging the dog," chairman of the board Solomon L. Badger III told the Chronicle of Higher Education. Indeed, that is strikingly the case in this instance.
As we noted in our trustee brochure, Selecting A New President: What to do Before You Hire a Search Firm, "The most important job a board performs is the selection of a president." The selection process includes every stage of a search through formulating a presidential contract amenable to all parties. By agreeing to such a one-sided contract, one that makes the president largely unaccountable to his ostensible employers, the board of trustees has abdicated its responsibility to the school and abjectly failed in its fiduciary duty to tuition-payers and taxpayers. That Florida A&M University is public makes this negligence all the more troublesome.
Relationships between governing boards and presidents should be cooperative, not adversarial. But the relationship is hierarchical. Governing boards must fulfill their obligations by leading. To govern effectively trustees must be able to hold their presidents to account, and not only in cases of gross or malicious misbehavior. The present embarrassment and hamstringing of Florida A&M's trustees, and the negative public response, should offer clear evidence against giving presidents free reign and scant effectual oversight.
Posted by Max Brindle on October 14, 2011 at October 14, 2011 05:17 PM
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