Two weeks after a record-breaking $237 million donation to Florida A&M University was met with praise—followed by skepticism and questions—the school’s president is apologizing for keeping key people in the dark.
FAMU President Larry Robinson says it was his hope for the possibility of the gift that blinded him to what he says were warning signs that something was amiss.
“I wanted it to be real and ignored the warning signs along the way,” Robinson told his board during a meeting Wednesday. “There was no personal gain. But the impact on our students and our university would have been extraordinary.”
Wednesday’s Special Meeting of the FAMU Board of Trustees was requested after the surprise announcement of a $237 million donation that caught the board, and many other key stakeholders, off guard during the May 4th commencement. There, Robinson and Texas-based hemp investor and commencement speaker Gregory Gerami, announced Gerami had donated the money in the form of shares in his private company.
Gerami has a questionable business background and has previously attempted to make large gifts to other institutions that fell through. Questions over his ability to fulfill the gift have also gone unanswered and FAMU is now dealing with the possibility that the money won’t materialize as promised. Because the shares are in a private company, the school cannot easily convert them to cash and Gerami’s permission would be required for FAMU to sell. The university also hasn’t received an independent valuation on the true worth of the stocks, and that could be anywhere from $0-$300 million.
The school’s board is now conducting an independent investigation into the university’s processes for major gifts and vetting donors.
“It is my belief that with the guidance of this board, we will arrive at a process much more transparent with such large gifts in the future,” Robinson said. “I saw in this unprecedented gift, the opportunity to serve our students and our athletics program in ways unimaginable at that time.”
Amid the ongoing fallout over the donation, FAMU's Vice President of University Advancement, Shawnta Friday-Stroud, resigned from that position. However, Friday-Stroud also serves as the Dean of the business school and will continue on in that role.
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