FAMU President announces he's stepping down; FAMU community reacts

• It’s said that Robinson will take one year off for a sabbatical then return to the university as a professor.
• After nearly seven years as President, Robinson decides to step down.
• Watch the video above to hear from incoming students and FAMU officials the same day of the major announcement.

BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT
“Enrolling in Florida A&M university was one of my best decisions I made I think.”

Mathius Hill is an incoming freshman at Famu. Friday was his orientation, which coincidentally, was the same day Famu President Dr. Larry Robinson announced he’d be stepping down from his role.

“I’m sure the campus will still have all its soul, pride, but it is unfortunate that the president had to step down.”

After nearly seven years as President, Robinson shared a letter with the community saying in part quote: “As you can imagine, this decision comes with many emotions- pride, joy, gratitude, some sadness, of course, but at the same time hope and anticipation.”

Hours after the announcement I checked in with FAMU Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees, Deveron Gibbons about that decision.

“We are a month away before the new school year starts; was this news shocking or was it par for the course dealing with public universities?”

“Never shocked about this kind of stuff because as I said earlier, Dr. Robinson is a quality leader and a quality public servant. He knows what’s best for him and his family; the timing of this is based on what he wanted to do and I’m glad that he took the time to do it while we were not in the middle of the semester.”

It’s said that Robinson will take one year off for a sabbatical then return to the university as a professor.

So, I went to FAMU’s campus and met with Vice President of Student Affairs, Dr. William Hudson.

“Any decision like this, a person has to give a lot of thought to it. I don’t think it was a shock, but it was a shock. I’ve served under several presidents; this is sometimes par for the course where you have Presidents who decide to step down.

While an exact date for Robinson’s departure hasn’t been decided on yet, student like incoming freshman Mathius Hill say they still have to move forward.

“Anything in life you got to adapt to it. All the changes; everything is constantly changing. Just adapt to your environment."