Florida A & M University late Friday made what its president, Dr. James H. Ammons, characterized as “major changes” in the school’s leadership team.
Dr. Cynthia Hughes Harris, FAMU Provost and second highest ranking university official behind Ammons since January 2008, was returning to her former post as Dean of the School of Allied Health Sciences, effective immediately, Ammons told the university community in a letter after a Friday “emergency” meeting with deans.
Harris’s replacement, effective Friday, is Dr. Larry Robinson, who returned to FAMU last November as professor and special assistant to the president after a brief stint in Washington with the Obama Administration. Robinson, who has been associated with FAMU since 1997, had served as university Provost from May, 2003 to August, 2005.
Ammons also advised his colleagues he was expanding the role of university general counsel Avery D. McKnight and promoting McKnight, FAMU alum, to vice president for legal affairs and general counsel. In his new role, McKnight picks up direct responsibility for risk management, labor relations and equal opportunity programs, Ammons says.
The shuffling of FAMU’s leadership team comes as the university faces continued fallout from the hazing death last fall of a drum major in its marching band and, separately, an inquiry about its “I” (incomplete grade) policy.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) is said to be concluding its investigation into the death of Robert Champion, the 26-year-old student who died from injuries inflicted by some fellow band members during a hazing encounter on a bus hired to transport band members to and from a football game in Orlando.
Meanwhile, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), is expected to send a team to the school this spring to investigate complaints about its policy regarding incomplete grades. The probe was reportedly sparked by a student in the School of Allied Health. The university has reportedly hired consultants to work department by department to prepare for the SACA inquiry set for this spring.
