Florida A&M VP Shawnta Friday-Stroud resigns amid crisis over controversial donation

Shawnta Friday-Stroud — Florida A&M University’s vice president for University Advancement and executive director of the FAMU Foundation — has resigned from her vice president role amid the controversy around a dubious $237 million donation that has rocked the campus and its alumni.

FAMU President Larry Robinson publicly announced her resignation during a virtual Board of Trustees special meeting Wednesday afternoon that was scheduled to discuss the multi-million-dollar, 10-year gift. She will, however, remain dean of the university's School of Business & Industry.

Friday-Stroud has been caught up in the crisis following the decision that about half a dozen FAMU officials made to accept Batterson Farms Corp. CEO Gregory Gerami’s major gift without informing other key stakeholders of the university, including members of the FAMU Foundation Board of Directors and the Board of Trustees.

Robinson also announced that the gift transaction has been "ceased" just days after giving a cautious update where he said the historic donation was put on hold.

It wasn't clear, however, what exactly Robinson meant, including whether the gift was being declined; a university spokesperson reached later Wednesday said he was unable to explain Robinson's remark.

The May 4 announcement initially drew national praise and skyrocketed pride in FAMU to unprecedented levels, but that was quickly eclipsed by a mountain of skepticism from FAMU alumni and other individuals.

Robinson made the announcements as he took responsibility for the poor vetting of the donor who was honored as the keynote speaker at a spring graduation ceremony and the crisis of confidence that has clouded what should have been a pinnacle moment.

"I wanted it to be real and ignored the warning signs along the way," Robinson told the board. "The public announcement at commencement was premature at best, and I apologize to all who witnessed it and shared their joy and jubilation."

"It is my belief that with the guidance of this board, we will arrive at a process much more transparent when it comes to such large gifts in the future," he added.

He also apologized to Board of Trustees Chair Kristin Harper, who was seen tearing up in the graduation ceremony at the news of the gift.

Moments after Robinson's apology, Harper blasted Robinson.

"I should have never been put on the spot or used for a convenient photo or video op for a gift that I knew nothing about," Harper said pointedly.

Due to a non-disclosure agreement, Harper was not included in the inner circle that knew about the details of the gift. But she did sign the gift agreement and was featured in the promotion of the donation on the university's social media page.

During the meeting, Harper also expressed her frustration and disappointment for the reason behind Wednesday's meeting and the implications it could "undoubtedly have on donor trust and confidence."

"I fully support your decision to cease this transaction. I only wish the decision would have been made during the six months spent on developing the gift and before a public announcement would have been made that could tarnish the reputation of this university," she said.

FAMU trustees 'uncomfortable,' 'upset' about the situation

The FAMU Board of Trustees’ nearly two-hour-long special meeting was dominated by numerous recommendations that led to a unanimous vote of hiring an external firm to perform a complete investigation of the major gift since its inception.

The decision comes after Robinson recently announced that the major gift — which has been dubbed as the largest donation in HBCU history — was put on ‘pause’ during an emergency FAMU Foundation Board meeting a week ago.

The investigation will determine what happened during the process that led to accepting the donation and determine compliance with policies, processes and financial controls. It is also slated to recommend any corrective actions with a written report under the leadership of the Board of Trustees audit and compliance committee chair, Michael White.

Board members are expected to get regular updates about the investigation once it begins.

As conversations about an external investigation overhauled the Zoom meeting, they left no room for Robinson or Friday-Stroud to provide further information about the gift to answer the trustees’ unanswered questions.

Board members including Trustee Otis Cliatt II and Vice Chair Deveron Gibbons were frustrated and unsatisfied with the turn that the meeting took as they understood the main purpose of convening was to provide clarity on detailed logistics about how the gift came about.

"We are here today to do one thing, and that is to find out the facts related to this particular donation — what happened and when it happened," Gibbons said. "I'm sitting here with over 100 questions that are written down here right now."

"This should not have happened and in light of that, we need to get the facts," he added. "This is uncomfortable, and I'm upset that I have to sit here and be doing this right now when all it took was normal due diligence."

Cliatt believed that Harper jumped the gun with her proposal for an external audit early on in the meeting before base-level information was shared to understand the scope of the unclear gift situation.

He also shared his sentiments of unhappiness regarding revelations of the major donation.

"I am not happy with the university making that decision, I'm not happy with the president of the university asking the board chair to sit in a photo op and I'm not happy with the board chair for sitting there in a photo op," Cliatt said. "We are the governing body. We don't do things without asking questions. We're here because the university did things without asking questions."

FAMU trustee John Crossman — a longtime FAMU financial supporter and businessman — says the process of agreeing to the donation and the manner in which it was announced presents a violation of trust.

"The question really is how do we repair that trust," Crossman said. "It makes me wonder, did President Robinson and the others not tell us because they don't trust us? How do we now move forward to rebuild that trust?"

More on Friday-Stroud's resignation

Before the board's special meeting, Friday-Stroud's resignation was announced in a Rattler Nation Blog post on X Wednesday morning, where a statement attributed to Robinson said “Dr. Friday-Stroud will return to serve as the Dean of the School of Business and Industry.”

“I have accepted her resignation and I am thankful for her excellent work in taking our fundraising to new heights,” Robinson said during the Zoom board meeting.

In the meantime, Donald Palm — FAMU's executive vice president and chief operating officer — will serve as the interim vice president for University Advancement. Robinson says he will appoint an individual to the position full-time after reviewing the search and selection process closely with trustees and the FAMU Foundation Board of Directors.

FAMU's Office of Communications refused to confirm the resignation prior to the Wednesday afternoon board meeting, but Robinson made the announcement clear at the special meeting.

On top of Friday-Stroud’s roles in University Advancement and the FAMU Foundation, she has been dean of FAMU’s School of Business and Industry since February 2010.

But before the donation drew fire, Friday-Stroud led FAMU to record-breaking levels of fundraising while serving in the position of vice president for University Advancement. About $26 million was raised in the 2022-2023 fiscal year that ended June 30, according to the university, which surpasses its $15 million goal.

Friday-Stroud was also tapped by Robinson to chair an 18-person search committee that eventually led to the hiring of Tiffani-Dawn Sykes as vice president and director of intercollegiate athletics in October 2022.

In addition, a national search began last year for the vice president position after Robinson announced a leadership reconstruction plan, which already involved Friday-Stroud returning to her dean role full-time.

Although three finalists were initially announced during the search in June of last year, no public announcement on the search has been made since then.

Wednesday afternoon’s special trustees meeting agenda showed that Friday-Stroud would be sharing updates on the major gift along with Robinson, but Friday-Stroud did not speak during the board meeting.

Gerami, a young, little known hemp farmer from Texas mysteriously surfaced and dazzled university officials with what they considered to be an epic act of generosity. The May 4 celebration with a giant check at a graduation ceremony with Gerami's declaration that "the money is in the bank" quickly unraveled as the media, alumni and others began to question the details behind the gift and examined the scant record of accomplishments of the donor.

In the course of its reporting, the Tallahassee Democrat revealed that the woman Gerami identified as the co-CEO of Batterson Farms never drew a paycheck or worked for him.

The paper, which spoke to Gerami in multiple one-on-one interviews, also revealed that a judge determined he had a history of domestic violence and he was arrested for "family violence" in 2022.

When asked by a trustee how the university would respond to mounting questions about the donation, Robinson said he wouldn't.

"In light of an impending investigation, I will say very little about this," Robinson said, adding administrators will be pushing out positive news on the university's impact on students and the community.

As the Board of Trustees moves forward with tackling the still unclear gift situation while an investigation will soon be underway, trustee Kelvin Lawson says facing another elephant in the room — accountability — is on the horizon.

"At the end of the day, it is going to become an accountability issue," Lawson said during the special meeting. "We're going to need to make some decisions as a board on how we move forward."

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

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: FAMU VP resigns; trustees grill school leaders over dubious donation