TALLAHASSEE -- Fred Gainous starts work at 7:15 a.m., well before most employees at Florida A&M University. As he strolls the empty campus, the new university president keeps an eye out for peeling paint and worn patches of grass.

He jots down problems in a tiny notepad he tucks inside his jacket.

Along with reflecting on his ideas on keeping students in school and doubling the alumni association membership, Gainous reminds himself to install more lights on campus. He even had a talk with the night maintenance crews.

Gainous, who became president July 1, is not shy about sharing his ambitious plans for the state's largest historically black university. But, at the same time, he is going back to basics to tackle things that he thinks have been neglected or aren't focused on students.

In less than six weeks, the FAMU graduate has started to reshape his 12,000-student alma mater. He is initiating changes big and small that have left some applauding and others fretting.

On his third day, Gainous fired three top administrators and still hasn't told them why. He reinstated Founder's Day, celebrating the day the school opened. He directed the provost to write a memo about appropriate dress that some employees found belittling. He has re-energized alumni.

"Obviously, he has things he wants to do," said Valencia Matthews, a professor of visual arts, humanities and theater. "And he wants to get about doing them."

Gainous gave up running Alabama's community college system to come to FAMU. He was named president in May after a 10-month national search. He had tears in his eyes as he accepted the job.

Picking a new president is a big deal at any university. But Gainous is only the ninth president in FAMU's 115-year history. The last one, Frederick Humphries, left a powerful legacy of growth and academic success that some thought would be difficult to follow.

But Gainous, 55, has imagined himself in the job since he was a kid growing up in rural Tallahassee. He was eager to return to the school he had attended more than three decades ago and to the city his family has called home for four generations.

With a $275,000 salary and thousands of dollars in benefits per year, Gainous is the highest paid university president in Florida.

"Something about returning to Florida A&M was powerful," he said. "You have a great sense of responsibility to do absolutely everything that is humanly possible to not fail."

President's door is open

Gainous has tried to spread the word that he is accessible to students and parents, handing out business cards with his cell phone number and encouraging them to call or stop by any time. He even thanks them for attending school.

"Students come first with him," said Renee Culverson, whom Gainous hired as an administrator in Alabama and who is now president at Gadsden State Community College there. "Sometimes people tend to lose sight of why a college or university exists. He wouldn't let us forget."

Gainous wants everything he and his staff do to be about students and what they need.

"If there is something that is not good for parents, students or the university, tell me," he said recently to staff members.

Gainous has spent his first month on the job with back-to-back meetings, so many that the always-prompt Gainous has fallen behind schedule trying to squeeze in talks with students, parents, staff and potential donors. The president is always on the go. He has gone across town to meet with state legislators and Tallahassee Mayor Scott Maddox. And he has sat down with Gov. Jeb Bush to ask for more money to maintain buildings. Another time, he asked Bush to call a potential donor.

Most meetings take place in Gainous' office, where the walls still are bare, stacks of paper clutter his desk and his computer sits unused. He insists on greeting visitors in the lobby, and he calls them by formal titles and last names even if he talks to them every day.

Gainous prefers to see the big picture and leave the day-to-day operations to others. That's been difficult, though, since he's still learning the job and has no permanent provost. And because he's interested in every detail.

In a recent meeting about summer graduation, Gainous was so concerned about the quality of the microphone that he wanted to check on it himself.

"He's about the business of business," said Ada Burnette, president of the Faculty Senate.

His wife and sister say he's a jokester at home. At the office, he's all business. Ken Rozier, the director of alumni affairs, went to school with Gainous and said he wouldn't accept failure. "I haven't experienced that and I hope I never do," Rozier said about his new boss.

But Gainous' vision for FAMU remains a mystery to the university community. He plans to spread the message this month, and classes start Aug. 26.

"People don't really know what to expect of him at this point," said Arthur Washington, who was fired as dean of the college of arts and science. "They are waiting for him to come out and see which way he wants to go."

Eyes on the prize

Even when he lived 200 miles away in Montgomery, Ala., Gainous would stuff folders with newspaper clippings and other bits of information about FAMU. He would stay up half of the night reading copies of the Tallahassee Democrat that his mother had saved for him.

He knew his time would come, and he wanted to be ready.

Gainous didn't just want to return to his alma mater. He wanted to lead it.

"You can hear it in his voice," said Delores Dean, director of FAMU's Career Center. "It had to be a long life goal."

As a kid, he knew he would attend FAMU when he finished high school in the 1960s.

"It was the only place I could go," he said.

Gainous still has dozens of family members in Tallahassee, including three sisters and two daughters.

He estimates that more than a dozen of his relatives graduated from FAMU. His sister, Delories Sloan, attended the university and returned as vice president of student affairs until resigning after he became president. His wife, Maddie, also went to FAMU, though they didn't meet until later. One of their daughters went to FAMU. Another will start there this fall.

Gainous attended classes during the day, worked nights full time cleaning the library at Florida State University and worked weekends cleaning a doctor's house. He slept in the evenings, and any spare time was spent studying.

"I kept up with him," said Ann Gayles, an education professor who taught him. "I could have predicted he was going places."

Gainous spent the past 14 years as chancellor of Alabama's two-year college system, which included merging schools, moving schools into a semester system and starting a teaching and learning symposium.

Those who know him aren't surprised that Gainous already is leaving his mark on FAMU.

"You're always going to know where he stands," said Ethel Hall, the vice president of the Alabama Board of Education. "He's going to tell you what he thinks. You don't find many people like that."

Gainous already has a long list of goals.

Conduct national searches for five vice presidents and two deans. Double the number of dues-paying alumni. Establish programs with neighboring public schools. Join the city and chamber of commerce in economic development projects.

FAMU has a national reputation in many areas, such as scholarship and recruitment. But Gainous knows that the school still has some basic needs, such as adequate technology for employees and buildings that look better.

Gainous, who, after five weeks, is still in awe of where his career has taken him, can't fathom leaving the place he has aspired to be his entire life.

"Every time I see president by my name, I am amazed," he said. "This is it. I've come home."

Fred Gainous

Age: 55

Hometown: Tallahassee

Education: Bachelor's in agricultural education from FAMU, 1969; master's in agricultural education from University of Florida, 1972; doctorate in education from UF in 1975

Recent experience: Chancellor of the Alabama College System's Department of Postsecondary Education, 1998-2002; Associate Vice President of St. Petersburg College, 1987-1988; Associate Commissioner at Kansas State Department of Education, 1985-1987

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