The General Faculty of the University held a meeting during finals last week and voted a resolution of no confidence in President Richmond and called for him to step down within two months. The vote was 128-4 with two abstentions.
John Powell, a philosophy professor and President of the General Faculty, noted that the University's PR office has since issued two press releases and a media kit including video clips of a smiling President surrounded by happy students. "The University's Senior Communications Officer is now apparently the President's Communications Officer," Powell remarked.
In the video release aired in local television news, Paul Mann as spokesperson for the President called the faculty who voted 128-4 for the resolution "a rump group" of faculty. Mann said they were trying to do an "end run around the Academic Senate." Powell responded that this is "hilarious. He was there and saw the senators. The Academic Senate just voted unanimously against the President on one issue, and the President gave them the back of his hand, as he has been doing on many issues for years." Two other recent unanimous votes by faculty groups were treated similarly, Powell said. Powell commented, "Several faculty point out to me that the administration keeps wanting to focus on just the last few weeks, while the underlying issues involve a long history. The history is one of disrespect and failures to share governance: the gates, the discontinuation of German, the President's past insulting statements towards faculty in the press, the issues in the Bill of Particulars, and then this year the President's inadequate response after working with two Senate subcommittees toward resolution of shared governance issues."
Mann, speaking for the President, also repeated a claim from one press release that the vote is largely symbolic with no real consequence. Powell said that while there are symbolic aspects to a vote of no confidence, the resolution from the General Faculty was amended to make explicit the claim that the President should step down. "Calling the claim that he should step down 'symbolic' is, well, stretching the meaning of 'symbolic' past all recognition. And the wording about stepping down was added in order to make clear something which is understood just about everywhere, namely that a president cannot lead without confidence placed in her or him by the faculty." Powell pointed out that recent no confidence votes or threats of no confidence votes have brought down the President of Harvard, the President of Baylor, and the Chair of the Board of Trustees at New Mexico. "Claiming the vote is symbolic is either ignorant or deliberately misleading," Powell said.
For three years, Powell noted, the administration has been trying to play down the prevalence of faculty discontent. "Mann claimed two years ago that talk of a no confidence vote was the result of a small group of disgruntled faculty, so we did a survey. One hundred fifty six, three quarters of those who responded to the question, 'Shall we have a vote of no confidence?' said yes, do it. We went looking for that 'small group' and found disgruntled faculty everywhere. Since then many of us have been working very hard to communicte with the president and find some alternative to a resolution of no confidence. Faculty at the meeting who had been against such a vote commented that basically Richmond is unreachable."
On the legitimacy of the vote, Powell asked, "Is it a "rump group" of faculty? That term goes back to the Puritan Revolution in England, and implies that there is some larger and more legitimate body who should have the authority. It's an unfortunate reference for Mann or for whoever thought it up. The General Faculty is not some group representing the faculty, it is the faculty. It includes, for example, half-time lecturers, librarians, counselors, coaches, teaching emeritus professors. It is a larger group than the union membership. It is more than ten times the size of the Academic Senate. If you want to go to the whole faculty, the General Faculty is it. The meeting was held in accordance with the General Faculty Constitution. They could look it up."
Powell commented further that "The President and Paul Mann seem to have no substantive response except to circle the wagons. This might work better if they had a wagon."
"The administration directs attention to the high level of support for the person whom the President appointed as Provost, without responding to the issue of giving faculty a share in making the decision, and without responding to the arguments the faculty voiced in favor of holding a national search. The reasons that three separate groups of faculty voted unanimously that the interim provost not be appointed to the permanent position were largely about diversity. The faculty were in favor of making a commitment to seeking a diverse pool of applicants, and are in favor of valuing diversity consistently across all divisions of the institution. Those supportive of the interim Provost were still interested in legitimizing his appointment by subjecting it to the standard process that allows for the possibility of diversifying the administration. The administration is demonstrating that in spite of talking a good game where there's no danger of having to act on it, they do not, in fact, take diversity as seriously as the faculty do," Powell added.
Powell also commented that faculty are gearing up for the possibility that the President will not step down. "In some universities, the faculty have had to repeatedly vote no confidence, and we are planning for that if necessary."
Contact Persons:
John W. Powell, General Faculty President and Associate Professor, Philosophy, (707) 826-5753
Saeed Mortazavi, Academic Senate Chair and Professor and Chair, School of Business, (707) 826-3846
Sent with Attached files: (1) Memorandum to California State University Board of Trustees and to Chancellor Charles Reed, Giving Notice of No Confidence Vote, with background and annotated table of contents to supporting documentation. (Documentation is available as .pdf files.)
And references to Press Releases from HSU's Marketing and Communications Office, at http://now.humboldt.edu/news/csu-review-team-endorses-richmonds-presidential-leadership/ http://now.humboldt.edu/news/president-voices-support-for-provost-commitment-to-hsu1/