Sean McKinniss

The end of the academic year is here and, as in the past, several votes of no confidence are in the spotlight.

Yesterday, the Faculty Senate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison voted no confidence in the system head and the Board of Regents.  Faculty cited concerns about new tenure policies and the state of shared governance.  Last week, I spoke with WKOW-TV and the Cap Times to discuss the vote.

Last month, various faculties at the University of Louisville held “polls” of no confidence against President James Ramsey.  The results will be revealed on May 4.  I spoke with Insider Louisville and the Courier-Journal to discuss the implications of the potential vote.

I have added additional votes to the database, too.  Please feel free to share more votes or other comments at any time!

I’ve added several votes of no confidence to the database today.

Last Friday, the Faculty Senate at the University of Akron held a vote of no confidence against President Scott Scarborough.  It passed 50-2.  Following the vote, I shared some thoughts with the Akron Beacon Journal.

I also added two votes from Loyola University in New Orleans.  The first occurred in 2006, when the College of Humanities and Natural Sciences held a vote against President Kevin Wildes.  Last month, the university’s Senate passed a vote against President Wildes.

City Colleges of Chicago, Illinois’ largest community college system, voted no confidence in their system chancellor earlier this month.

Finally, 92% of the faculty at Hocking College voted no confidence in their president.  Ordinarily, I exclude union votes from the database; however, I’m sharing the news because Hocking College’s president has received four votes of no confidence at other institutions.

Today I added the faculty vote of no confidence at Ithaca College.  Nearly 87% of eligible faculty members voted.  Almost 78% of those faculty members voted no confidence in President Tom Rochon.  This vote has garnered national and international publicity.  The college’s student newspaper and the Ithaca Voice have provided extensive coverage on the votes there.

Meanwhile, the Academic Senate at CSU, Chico voted no confidence in their president and other senior administrators.  The college’s student newspaper has more details on the vote.

Finally, I came across a 2014 vote of no confidence at Northern New Mexico College against President Nancy Barceló.  Last week,  Dr. Barceló announced plans to retire sooner than planned.

Recent events at the University of Missouri and Ithaca College have generated new discussions and interest in votes of no confidence.

Last week, I spoke with Michael Smith of the Ithaca Voice about the situation at Ithaca College, where the student body and faculty will hold votes in the coming weeks.

Also, I added the vote of no confidence against Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin at Mizzou to the database.  The English department held this vote.  The department cited a tenure “marked by dereliction of duty in maintaining the quality and reputation of graduate education, violations of the bedrock principle of shared governance and failure to defend the University’s educational mission against outside political pressure.”  Faculty also also cited the deteriorating climate for students and faculty on campus.  Ultimately, the chancellor resigned.

Finally, I added a 1997 vote at Savannah State University to the database.

Please feel free to contact me with questions or information.

After a long hiatus (during which I finalized and defended my dissertation), I have added more votes to the database.  As I have written before, many thanks for your messages, contributions, and clarifications.

Today, I added ten new votes, including the highly publicized votes at Yeshiva University and Sweet Briar College.  I also added a vote from Bermuda College in Hamilton, Bermuda.  The latter is the first “international” vote in the database.

The faculty vote of no confidence against the president of the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) received nationwide attention this week.  The president’s decision to terminate UAB’s football program is the primary reason for all of the interest in the vote.  However, as UAB faculty indicated, there were other issues beyond football that led to the successful vote.

On Tuesday, I spoke about this with Alan Alexander of the Birmingham Business Journal.  We discussed the aftermath of votes elsewhere, how to improve shared governance, and what this means for other colleges and universities.  The article is available here.

Happy New Year!  Thanks for visiting in droves in 2014.  The number of site visitors far exceeded my expectations.  I also appreciated your numerous emails and messages.  I hope you continue to visit and comment throughout 2015!

Today, I added a few new votes to the database.  As I’ve noted before, please don’t hesitate to contact me with additional news or insights.

Today I added some new votes to the database.  Check them out.

As I noted earlier, I really appreciate hearing from visitors.  Since late July, when I launched this site, several faculty members, administrators, students, and alumni have emailed me to share further details about votes listed–or not listed–on this site.  If you would like to add information about votes, please contact me.

Thank you for a very enthusiastic response to this site.  Hundreds of people have visited in the last few weeks, and I have really enjoyed hearing from you.  I especially appreciate conversations with people who have had first-hand experiences with votes listed on this site.

This weekend, I added some new votes to the database.  Also, based upon conversations with visitors, I have clarified some of the rationales for votes listed here.  I also fixed a few dead links!

Please do not hesitate to contact me with questions or comments.