The Alabama A&M University Board of Trustees votes to end University President's contract

NEWS March 31, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Jerome Saintjones: 356-372-5607

Board Votes Jennings Out

Huntsville, Ala. ---- The Alabama A&M University Board of Trustees voted 7-1 on Monday, March 31, to terminate University President Robert R. Jennings, effective at the close of the 10 a.m. meeting.

After returning from executive session at 11:20 a.m., the Board heard findings from an ad hoc committee that determined that Jennings’ former Executive Assistant Marco McMillian did not meet the minimum qualifications for the post, that his 10-15 days of leave to complete the requirements for his master’s degree and for which he received more than $2,000 in pay while away were not properly documented, and that the granting of such leave was outside the president’s authority. Ad hoc committee Trustees Burse and Sherrod recommended Jennings’ termination.

Although a motion to bring in former AAMU President Carl Harris Marbury on a temporary basis was voted down, the Board did agree to the development of a transition plan and transition team within about two weeks to fill the leadership gap on an interim basis. After listening to some of the discussions, Jennings silently rose and left the Board meeting for his upstairs office via a side exit and within minutes was seen leaving the building.

Trustee Sherrod, who offered both motions for the transition plan and team, said the transition team would include Board President Pro Tempore L. Shefton Riggins, Board Secretary Velma Tribue, Trustees Sherrod and Burse, Business and Finance Vice President Charlie Rucker, a Faculty Senate representative, the chair of the Council of Deans, the leader of the Council of Departmental Chairs, the Physical Facilities director, and alumni representative and student representative. The Board then rescinded its February 22 resolution that had severely curbed, a minority of three trustees believed, the President’s authority.

Before entering executive session at 10:15 a.m., the Board gave its approval for the University to officially enter negotiations with the City of Huntsville that will permit the expansion into a police precinct of a fire station currently operating on the southwest portion of the University campus.

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More About Jennings
A consummate student advocate and fundraiser, Jennings assumed his role as the tenth president of nearly 133-year-old AAMU in January 2006. He previously served as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Future Focus 2020, Babcock Graduate School of Management, Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N. C.

Jennings earned the B.A. degree in sociology from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Ga., in 1972. He received the M.A. degree in educational psychology (1974) and an Ed.S. degree in interrelated learning (1979) from (Clark) Atlanta University. In 1982, Jennings also earned a Doctor of Education degree in educational administration and policy studies from Clark Atlanta University. In 1978, Jennings served as a Fulbright-Hays Fellow assigned to the Institute of Pernambuco in Recife, Brazil.

In his capacity at Future Focus 2020, Jennings was responsible for managing the day-to-day operations of an agency dedicated to engaging minority communities in a national discussion about the future, and to identifying the significant social, technological, economic, environmental, and political trends and events that will have greatest impact on such communities by the year 2020.

Jennings’ list of service to higher education includes, from 1979-82, an adjunct professorship and grant coordinator for the School of Education, Atlanta University Graduate School; associate professor in the Education and Psychology Department of Morris Brown College (Ga.); dissertation advisor for students in the areas of public and educational administration, management and public policy as an adjunct professor for the Union Graduate School in Cincinnati, Ohio; and, from 1985-88, Executive Vice President to the President for Institutional Development and Alumni Affairs at Atlanta University.

His other higher education posts include: Vice President for Development and President of the Foundation, Norfolk State University (Va.), 1988-91; Vice President for Institutional Advancement, Albany State University, 1991-97; and Vice Chancellor for Development and University Relations, North Carolina A&T State University, 1997-98.

Next Meeting
The Board is expected to announce its next meeting soon.