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FAMU business school Dean Friday-Stroud transitions to faculty role; interim is named

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FAMU business school Dean Friday-Stroud transitions to faculty role; interim is named

Outgoing Florida A&M University School of Business and Industry Dean Shawnta Friday-Stroud will continue at the university as a top-level professor – and at a continued six-figure salary.

The announcement about Friday-Stroud’s reassignment from her role as dean, effective Sept. 13, was made Friday afternoon during a 7-minute-long virtual meeting with the business school community, in which Friday-Stroud smiled broadly throughout but shared no personal comments about the change.

Friday-Stroud, who played a key role in the recently mishandled donation fiasco, declined to make herself available to the Democrat for comment Monday.

FAMU Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Donald Palm said Friday-Stroud has been reappointed as the business school’s Sybil Collins Mobley endowed chair and named executive director for Strategic Partnerships and Business Development. Before that, she had been the school’s dean for 14 years.

Ira Bates, an associate professor of accounting at the university who also serves as chair of Accounting, Finance and Business Law, will serve as interim dean.

“Dr. Friday-Stroud’s dedication to FAMU and her broader professional community reflects her commitment to excellence in education, leadership and service,” Palm said on the Friday Zoom call. “Her work continues to inspire and shape the next generation of business leaders and scholars.”

The live Zoom announcement was first posted on the YouTube channel “OFF SCRIPT” under the heading of “FAMU SBI MEETING: DR. Shawntay Friday-Stroud ‘OUT’ .. WHO’S NEXT?” that misspelled Friday-Stroud’s first name. The university did not announce the news until Monday.

”Students, we didn’t want to take a lot of time out of your Friday but did want to share that information with you directly from Dr. Palm,” Friday-Stroud said on the Zoom call. During Friday-Stroud’s time of serving as the business school’s dean since 2010, she has been a tenured professor.

The change comes nearly three months after Friday-Stroud resigned from her previous positions of serving as FAMU’s vice president for University Advancement and executive director of the FAMU Foundation to solely continue her dean role following the donation debacle.

Friday-Stroud was in the inner circle of university officials who worked behind the scenes to accept what was presented as a $237 million gift from a Texas hemp farmer. The deal proved to be too good to be true, which led to skepticism, frustration and disappointment from FAMU stakeholders.

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An investigation found the major donation to be “fraudulent” and also laid out how the university “improperly handled” the gift during its closed-door vetting process.

In addition, the investigation found that those associated with the University Advancement office felt that because of Friday-Stroud’s direct reporting role to former President Larry Robinson and her perceived background in finance, they were not at liberty to raise flags about the source of the gift.

More: Dubious $237 million donation to FAMU is ‘fraudulent,’ investigation’s final report says

The FAMU alumna graduated from the university with both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business administration in 1989 and 1990 before earning a doctoral degree in business administration with a concentration in management from Florida International University in 1997.

As SBI dean, she initiated and managed the development of several new degree programs at FAMU – including an online master’s of business administration (MBA) program, a doctor of pharmacy and MBA dual degree program and both undergraduate and graduate degrees in supply chain management.

Friday-Stroud’s annual salary as dean has been $230,000, according to the university, and she will maintain that salary through her new role.

The Tallahassee Democrat asked the university in a May 16 public records request for Friday-Stroud’s complete salary, compensation and benefits during her joint positions as a dean while she also served in her former vice president and executive director roles. No information has yet been provided.

As Bates, a veteran SBI professor, gets ready to take on the interim dean role, he comes from serving as an associate professor at FAMU since 2001 and chair of Accounting, Business and Finance since 2008.

Palm did not announce when the university plans to begin a national search for a permanent dean of the business school, which commemorates its 50th anniversary this fall.

“As Dr. Bates transitions into the interim, Dean Friday-Stroud will be at his side to make sure that you all have a successful school year,” Palm told students during the Friday meeting.

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

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