During a brief break in a meeting last week of the Florida A&M University board of trustees, President James Ammons was weighing his options.
Several trustees had spoken in support of a motion of no-confidence offered against Ammons for his seeming lack of leadership as the university has dealt with one problem after another, including the hazing death of a drum major in its iconic Marching 100 band. The board would shortly vote on the motion, which ended up passing 8-4.
Ammons asked for time to confer with Solomon Badger, chairman of the Florida A&M University board of trustees.
"The kinds of things he said were, 'I need to make a decision. I need to make a decision right now. The options are that I can either resign or I can take this and go forward with it,'" Badger said.
Ultimately, Ammons decided to go with the second option -- staying -- and found widespread support from members of the public who spoke at the meeting. Many of them said that Ammons' nearly five-year tenure at the school had been successful and that the current bout of bad news shouldn't overwhelm that.
But also underlying the debate over Ammons' future is the complicated relationship between a historically black university and the predominantly white government that oversees it.
State officials who have tried to wade into the controversy have repeatedly found themselves rebuffed; Gov. Rick Scott became the target of student protests after suggesting that Ammons temporarily step aside while investigations into the university continued.
To some of FAMU's supporters, the clashes with establishment figures seem to echo old racial battles and new questions about the school's very existence.
"The reason individuals are asking for Dr. Ammons' resignation is that it supports what some believe about historically black institutions: They are unnecessary, outdated and unneeded in the 21st century," said Tommy Mitchell, president of the FAMU National Alumni Association.
Under that narrative, everyone from the media to Scott is singling out A&M for the national problem of hazing. As Rep. Alan Williams, D-Tallahassee, said after Thursday's meeting: "Why Florida A&M?" when so many other schools also deal with the same problem.
The anger against Scott was still on display Thursday, when Clyde Ashley, a FAMU professor, directly addressed the governor during public comments.
"Stop trying to micromanage FAMU or any aspect of this university," he said.
The latest grist for the mill of those who believe the school is being unfairly targeted was a June 4 letter Dean Colson, chairman of the Florida Board of Governors, sent to Badger. That followed a broader letter about presidential evaluations sent to the chairs of each board three weeks earlier. The second letter listed six specific things FAMU trustees should consider when reviewing Ammons' tenure.
But Ammons supporters saw a veiled threat in Colson's reminder that "the Board of Governors has retained the responsibility, through the evaluation process, to ensure that a university’s chief executive officer is providing appropriate leadership and oversight for all aspects of university operations."
The considerations listed in the letter, though, went far beyond hazing, including graduation rates; allegedly fraudulent audit summaries presented to trustees; sexual assault against a minor at the institution's Developmental Research School; and how students not enrolled at FAMU ended up in the band in the first place.
"This chair simply wanted to make sure other issues, well beyond the hazing issues, were included [in the evaluation]," board spokeswoman Kelly Layman said.
Others back up the view that more is wrong at A&M than the hazing problems, with trustee Narayan Persaud talking about "a leadership that is caught in a wilderness of errors."
Still, some supporters of FAMU's current leadership were upset about the letter -- and at least one is considering action.
"Ultimately, who checks the board of governors?" Williams asked. "Who's giving them an evaluation? Currently, there isn't one. But maybe next legislative session, there might be one."
The media have also come under fire for highlighting the controversies about A&M -- often wrapped together with the state officials accused of holding the school to a different standard.
"No other president and nobody else has solved this problem," Mitchell told the board, "so I don't see why FAMU has to be the poster college now for hazing."
