Chief Financial Officer and Vice President of Finance Teresa Hardee will be moving on to work at Delaware State University after submitting her resignation Sept. 5.
Hardee said the decision came after she received several appealing offers from other universities and was looking to take her skills into a different setting.
“It’s [Delaware State] a smaller institution and I’ve always wanted to be more intimately involved in all facets of higher education, not just the finances,” she said. “How does finance really impact a student’s life, or faculty life? So I get to do a little more of that in a smaller setting.”
She will be the vice president of finance at Delaware State, another historically black college. Hardee said she looks forward to continuing the relation between HBCU experience and society and the market of higher education.
In the past, Hardee has called Associate Vice President of Finance Vinod Sharma the “godfather of accounting.” She said she thought he would be a good fit for the position, but Interim President Larry Robinson will be charged with the task of picking who will fill her post.
“I think he would be an excellent fit,” Hardee said citing Sharma’s close to 40 years in accounting at FAMU. “He has played the number one part in being successful in this job and turning the finances [of FAMU] around.”
Hardee was part of the 2007 restructuring when former President James H. Ammons acquired the university in the midst of financial upheaval.
“When we came in 2007, there was a lot going on,” Hardee said. “We really had our work mapped out for us.” Hardee said the administration at that time was tasked with stabilizing what she called “the perfect storm.”
Since then, FAMU has received a clean bill of financial audits, although the Florida Department of Law Enforcement will be wrapping up a financial investigation of the university within the next few weeks.
Narayaun Persaud, the president of FAMU’s Faculty Senate, said although Hardee was leaving, “we still have competent people in place to carry out the accounting factions of the university,” also citing the fact that Sharma was still active in the finance department.
Persaud also said many faculty have been vocal about the amount of time it has taken for administration changes to occur.
“They [faculty] felt like the past administration is still here and that was the problem with the university,” he said. in this job and turning the finances [of FAMU] around.”
Hardee was part of the 2007 restructuring when former President James H. Ammons took lead of the university in the midst of financial upheaval.
Since then, FAMU has received a clean bill of financial audits, although the Florida Department of Law Enforcement will be wrapping up a financial investigation of the university within the next few weeks.