Workplace Blog

Columbus Business First: Columbus State employees give no-confidence vote to president

Columbus State Community College President Val Moeller did not fare well in a union-sponsored poll on her performance at the two-year college.

A majority of college employees who returned ballots gave a vote of no confidence to Moeller, according to a release from the Columbus State Education Association, which represents the school’s full-time faculty members.

The Columbus Dispatch: Employees not behind Columbus State president

Columbus State Community College employees have issued a “no confidence” vote for President Valeriana Moeller.
Faculty union President Steve Abbott said the vote “reflects a loss of faith” in Moeller, who has been president since 1996. “We believe that the outcome accurately represents the views of CSCC employees.”

The vote came after the Columbus State Education Association hired an independent accounting firm to mail ballots to all full-time employees, including faculty, staff and academic administrators.

The largest percentage of votes came from the faculty, with 63 percent of the full-time faculty voting.

Of those, 85 percent — or 133 teachers — voted “no confidence.” Fourteen percent voted that they had confidence; three ballots were returned unmarked.

The Oregonian: Clark College – The union hopes its vote will factor into R. Wayne Branch’s annual review

Clark College’s faculty delivered a decisive no-confidence vote against its president Monday when the union leader revealed that 96 percent of participating faculty members cast ballots against R. Wayne Branch.

The Post Online: Faculty evaluations of OU administrators to proceed

The Ohio University chapter of the American Association of University Professors will proceed with evaluations of three top-ranking OU administrators but without university resources or administrative recognition.

The association originally called for an evaluation of the president and provost, a referendum that 80 percent of 477 voting faculty approved. After the Board of Trustees blocked OU Provost Kathy Krendl from approving the evaluation, the AAUP said at Faculty Senate’s May 15 meeting it would continue with an evaluation and include OU’s vice president for regional higher education.

“We see the assessment as something that 80 percent of the participating faculty wanted,” said John Gilliom, the association’s executive committee member. “One legal memo is not going to shut us down on this.”

In an e-mail to Kevin Mattson, president of the association’s OU chapter, Legal Affairs Director John Burns said he has “legally authorized the administration to deny the AAUP any right to utilize university resources to circulate or otherwise distribute and return the evaluation document or materials.”

Western Herald: Delene announces resignation under pressure from faculty

Western Michigan University Provost Linda Delene resigned from her post last Friday, less than 24 hours after the WMU chapter of the American Association of University Professors passed a resolution to conduct a no-confidence vote on her.
Her resignation is effective at the end of today.

Delene, 66, who has held the position, in addition to being vice president of academic affairs, since 2004, has been a member of the university community for nearly 30 years.

“Because I have come to know Provost Delene well over the past two years, I know that her goals have always been to preserve and enhance the quality of this university and provide the finest academic environment for the students we serve,” said President Judith I. Bailey, in a brief e-mail message to the WMU community.

Delene will take a year-long administrative leave before returning to the Department of Marketing in August 2007.

The AAUP passed the resolution at its meeting Thursday, where members gathered to discuss the results of the recent Graduate Program Review which Delene headed. The reviews called for the closure of 21 programs and the merger of 24 programs.

The resolution called for Delene to be censured for her conduct of the entire review process, and to conduct a no-confidence vote on her later this week. The AAUP also passed a second resolution, for a vote this week, not to have the Review’s results submitted to the WMU Board of Trustees at its meeting July 14. The AAUP noted that the plan and review were flawed.

The Chronicle: American U. Board Approves Sweeping Overhaul That Could Have Wide Impact in Academe

American University’s Board of Trustees on Friday unanimously approved a sweeping set of recommendations to improve the board’s inclusiveness, accountability, and oversight. The overhaul was conducted in response to the heat trustees have taken from students, faculty members, alumni, and the U.S. Senate over their role in the spending scandal involving American’s former president, Benjamin Ladner, who was ousted in October.