What's next for FAMU leadership? Robinson outlines hiring plans, hints at capital campaign

Florida A&M University President Larry Robinson went into detail about his leadership team’s restructuring plan Monday, when he announced the expected timeline for filling in two key positions and introduced plans to launch a capital campaign in the near future.

Robinson revealed the plan to restructure FAMU's administrative team Friday following discussions about making the change during a Board of Trustees retreat in August.

Previous coverage: FAMU President Larry Robinson announces immediate plans to restructure his leadership team

“This is all about FAMU and putting together a plan that will more effectively allow us to carry out our mission and fulfill our vision as an institution,” Robinson said during a press conference Monday morning on the steps of Lee Hall.

With the recently established role of executive vice president and chief operating officer being held by former Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Maurice Edington — which led to former College of Education Dean Allyson Watson moving up to be interim provost — the search and selection of a permanent provost is expected to be completed by the end of spring 2023.

“One of the things that excites me about this new opportunity is that it’s going to allow us to have a greater focus on operational aspects of this institution,” Edington said Monday.

Although Robinson didn't say what prompted the need for the new position, it means that members of the leadership team now directly reporting to Edington include Watson, Vice President for Student Affairs William E. Hudson Jr. and Vice President for Research Charles Weatherford.

Robinson said he is debating whether the search for the next provost should take place internally or on a national scale, adding that there are a lot of qualified people at FAMU that might be considered for the role.

Watson, who is not out of the question for being a possible candidate for the permanent position, said she brings “experience, knowledge, capacity and integrity” to the interim role.

But when it comes to the vice president for university advancement and executive director of the FAMU Foundation — a position that School of Business and Industry Dean Shawnta Friday-Stroud continues to hold before she returns to solely focusing on her dean position — the search will be national and is also expected to be filled before the end of the upcoming spring semester.

The national search will launch in the next two or three weeks, Robinson said, after a committee is created and a statement is made about the university’s goals and expectations for the next person who fills the role.

“When I started this nearly five years ago, I had no idea that we would be moving into five years of doing this,” Friday-Stroud said Monday after thanking Robinson for believing in her to hold both positions.

“It is together as a team that we have moved the university to over $24 million in fundraising, and we’re on track to do that again this year,” she added.

In the 2021-2022 fiscal year, Friday-Stroud led FAMU’s record $24.6 million fundraising campaign while holding the two positions simultaneously.

While the restructuring plan adds a new position to the leadership team and creates a shift in who holds the top roles after the president, the need for a new vice president of university advancement is critical as Robinson also hinted at a capital campaign plan that is in the works, which Friday-Stroud would be spearheading in the meantime.

The brief mentioning of the plan came with few details as the team is in the stage of determining when it will launch, what the goal might be and what resources will be needed to carry it out, according to Friday-Stroud.

“What we’re trying to do here is make some moves that are going to allow us to get settled into the top 100 universities in this nation, but at the same time, generate the revenue from fundraising and more that's going to allow us to do that,” Robinson said.

Robinson also believes that accommodating the needs of FAMU’s students remains his team’s number one job, following what has been a chaotic first half of the school year so far with housing complaints from on-campus residents and compliance concerns from the football team.

More related news:

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“What I'm most concerned about is the success of our students,” Robinson said as he referred to the restructuring. “One of the primary reasons we’re doing this is to make sure that student concerns are being heard, and that we develop strategies that are more effective in terms of meeting their needs,” Robinson said.

Contact Tarah Jean at tjean@tallahassee.com or follow her on twitter @tarahjean_. 

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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: FAMU President Robinson on hiring searches after admin team restructuring