A late-added budget amendment to the state’s 2025-2026 spending plan will give Florida A&M University the ability to side-step a state law that caps the amount of public money state colleges and universities can spend on presidential salaries. The move comes amid a bitter standoff between FAMU’s Board of Trustees and its Foundation over Marva Johnson’s compensation package.
Florida law currently caps the amount of public money spent on college and university presidential salaries at $200,000. The institutions must fund the rest out of their private funds. Johnson, a lobbyist for Charter Communications and a former chair of Florida's State Board of Education, was named president of FAMU last month. Since then, there’s been outsized opposition to her appointment from alumni and other stakeholders who view her with suspicion and distrust over her ties to Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has exercised broad influence in the recent appointments of several state university and college presidents.
The FAMU Foundation is charged with raising money for the school; however, several of its board members are vocal Johnson opponents. The board has raised issue with the size of her compensation package, which could reach nearly $900,000 (including a $650,000 base salary, which is less than Johnson’s $750,000 ask) and dwarfs that of her predecessors. The Foundation is also concerned that the size of Johnson’s spend comes at a time when giving is down and it has other large obligations to fulfill—such as the compensation contracts for both its interim and immediate-past president, and a new basketball coach, in addition to requests from other departments and schools at the institution. Furthermore, the Foundation board initially approved contributing approximately $388,000 to a presidential salary and has balked at being asked to re-allocate funding from other areas of its budget to put toward Johnson’s compensation.
In a June 6 meeting, some FAMU Trustees expressed frustration with the Foundation over its refusal to go along and threatened to decertify the organization. The Foundation operates semi-independently of the school but is under the purview of the Board of Trustees.
Johnson’s appointment to FAMU’s top job must still be approved by the Florida Board of Governors, and FAMU is trying to resolve the compensation dispute ahead of that confirmation vote.
The Florida legislature will vote on its 2025-2026 budget plan, which includes the FAMU provision, on Monday.
