AFT Secretary-Treasurer Fedrick Ingram Responds to the Hiring of New FAMU President

WASHINGTON—AFT Secretary-Treasurer Fedrick Ingram issued the following statement in response to the hiring of Marva Johnson as the new president of Florida A&M University, one of Florida’s historically Black colleges and universities:

“The appointment of Marva Johnson as the president of FAMU––Florida’s flagship HBCU––is not only an insult to the presidential selection process and those working hard in the education profession; it’s a blatant power move straight from the Project 2025 playbook: target education centers and eliminate ideologies and individuals that could expose and counter its divisive policies. This is pure politics and another front on an imagined culture war that is having real, dire consequences.

“Johnson’s appointment is par for the course when it comes to Donald Trump and MAGA acolytes like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has yet again put his thumb on the scale by installing inexperienced, unqualified people to run organizations they ultimately want to dismantle. This is something DeSantis has done already at Florida International University, and it may also happen at the University of West Florida, where Manny Diaz, the current Florida commissioner of education, is a finalist for UWF president.

“Likewise, U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon was given the keys to one of our most sacred institutions, only to drive the Department of Education into the ground. McMahon has no relevant experience or skill set for the massive job Trump gifted her, and yet she has managed to fire thousands of employees, cut funding and remove critical services for our most vulnerable populations.

“Johnson is no different. She has no relevant background and no expressed vision but, thanks to her close relationship with DeSantis, has been picked to run the state’s premiere HBCU—an institution whose commitment to honest history as well as diversity, equity and inclusion makes it a target.

“Like Trump’s attacks on Harvard and Columbia universities, DeSantis’ maneuvering with FAMU is part of the same play: defund and re-engineer education in order to undermine the significance of higher education in American life and eliminate voices of dissent.

“That’s why the AFT is fighting on every front in the war against education. We are fighting in the courts. We are fighting through commerce. We are fighting in Congress and in the court of public opinion. We are fighting because we know an attack on one institution is an attack on us all.

“We will be watching and waiting to see if Johnson will carry the water for the governor or instead recognize the importance of FAMU’s legacy; create an agenda that benefits the students, faculty, staff and alumni; and continue to build the global brand of Florida A&M University.