Yeah, this whole thing didn’t go over too well, did it?
In what Faculty Senate secretary Ernest May said amounted to a no-confidence vote, the professors passed a resolution to “express lack of confidence” in the board of trustees and president Jack Wilson.
May said it’s the first time the faculty has taken such a vote in at least three decades.
The move comes a week after Wilson announced his idea to restructure how the campus is run, news that prompted the resignation of one trustee and harsh criticism from a state lawmaker and the campus community.
And sacked UMass Chancellor Lombardi is still not talking. But of course, he signed off on everything, right?
Hey, it’s all good with trusty trustee chair Steven Tocco:
Stephen Tocco, chairman of the trustees, issued a statement Thursday expressing the board’s confidence in Wilson.
“It is our goal to make the University of Massachusetts one of the very best public universities in the United States,” he said. “I understand that this involves change and sometimes change can seem difficult.”
To translate: “Sometimes change is so difficult you really can’t tell anyone about it until we’ve done whatever the hell we wanted to do, for whatever verkakte reason we damn well please.”
I’ll have more on Tocco later. I’ll just say this: One has to wonder what his qualifications are for telling us how to make UMass one of the “best public universities in the United States.”
Update: Joan Vennochi had a column on the UMess kerfuffle today.
Update: According to DaveMB and Vennochi, Wilson has taken himself out of consideration for the post, and now seems to be amenable to a more transparent planning process. That’s good and proper of him.
I was at the meeting — Wilson opened with a conciliatory statement, saying that he apologized for the way the announcement was handled, welcomed a task force to study reorganization, had contacted the Governor who had chosen two officials to serve on it, and would find a respected academic from outside the system to chair it. (The faculty resolution on the agenda called for such an task force but also said it should investigate the conduct of the Trustees and whether procedures were followed.) Wilson also repeated the statement he made earlier to a Globe reporter, that he would not be a candidate for any combined chancellor/president position and would decline such a position if offered to him. He said that Lombardi’s achievements in getting buildings started and finished, and what he described as a relatively favorable state budget, were the result of the united position of the campuses.
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Before Wilson took questions, there was a noisy demonstration by about 15 people who rattled noisemakers, chanted, and displayed anti-Card signs. After a minute they stopped (as security-looking people were approaching) and left peacefully to applause from the faculty.
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In Q&A, he refused to discuss the “personnel action” regarding Lombardi, on the advice of counsel and based on what he said was his agreement with Lombardi to limit comment to the initial statements. But he said he wanted all possible faculty input into the decisions about future structure, with representatives of faculty, students, staff, alumni and community chosen by those constituencies themselves. Asked whether the “dinner meeting”, at which he presented his slides describing his vision of a single university, violated the state’s open meeting law, Wilson said that only discussions of ideas had taken place, not policy decisions. The UMass student trustee, who had been at that meeting and others, disputed this, saying that there was deliberation and specific discussion of a common admissions policy and even common athletic teams (she attributed this to trustee Carlin). Wilson said that university counsel had told them their actions were legal, and she should ask the Attorney General to take action if action was warranted. He concluded “I don’t call the meetings and I don’t run them — I only attend”.
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After 35 minutes of Q&A, the meeting turned to the agenda, four resolutions jointly crafted by the Faculty Senate leadership and the MSP (faculty and librarian union) leadership. The first expressed no confidence in the action of the trustees and called for an independent investigation. An amendment was offered changing “action of the Trustees” to “action of the Trustees and President, specifically the removal of John Lombardi as Chancellor”. After brief discussion, the amendment was adopted by 179-31, with most of the Senate leadership voting no. After a few more statements, with 5:00 approaching, the question was moved and voted, passing 214-1. The other three resolutions were then moved and passed unanimously without discussion:
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2) called on trustees to take no action at their planned 21 June meeting based on an unannounced plan, specifically personnel actions and centralization of fundraising and admissions
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3) called on trustees to make all personnel actions in accordance with established procedures
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4) reconvenes this meeting in the week following that 21 June meeting, at a time to be jointly decided by the Senate and MSP leadership
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The meeting then adjourned.
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Note that the appearence of over 200 faculty at a governance meeting is quite unusual at UMass Amherst, which has about 1000 faculty in all.
Vennochi…
“…Lombardi isn’t the main issue…”
“…Lombardi isn’t the main issue…”
“…Lombardi isn’t the main issue…”
“…Lombardi isn’t the main issue…”
“…Lombardi isn’t the main issue…”
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DaveMB
“Wilson…welcomed a task force to study reorganization, had contacted the Governor who had chosen two officials to serve on it, and would find a respected academic from outside the system to chair it.”
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Vennochi…
“Initial press accounts suggested that Wilson would end up as president and chancellor. However, he now insists “that is off the table.” A task force, which will include Lombardi, will review several governance options. “If at the end of the process, there is a decision to merge the chancellor and president positions, I am committed to a search and I will not be a candidate for that search,” said Wilson. What if the board, headed by a certain former pharmacist, asks him to take the job? “I will say no,” he pledged.”
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I’m not a big fan of Tocco and I think everyone should take an interest in not only him, but all the Trustees. ALL THE TIME. But it looks like Wilson is setting up an open and independent process to study things. Governor appointments? Outside academic to chair it? Committees from campuses to meet and discuss?
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If Lombardi’s silence is an indication that he’s being held in the tower or the dungeon, what does Patrick’s silence indicate? Well, he isn’t totally silent. Behind the scenes he’s apparently named two people to sit on the task force, which means he’s been having some conversations with someone.
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Could his public silence indicate he’s staying out of it because he doesn’t view this as a malicous palace coup intended to destroy the State U to feed the egos and power appetite of a board of trustees while beating down the ‘unwashed masses’ (faculty)?
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Thanks for the great post DaveMB; your posts on this have been the most factual and informative since this thing started.
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I’d add at least one point to DaveMB’s excellent summary of the UMass Amherst Faculty meeting Thurs. A great deal of attention was paid to a dinner meeting at which Wilson presented a PowerPoint talk describing how his reorganization would work. The slides were marked “Confidential”. Wilson contends that there was no breach of open meeting rules, and that this was simply a discussion of ideas and possibilities. It was pointed out that the ideas looked pretty concrete and definitive. Wilson replied that he had discussed this before the meeting with attorney’s and that they didn’t feel there was an issue.
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The UMass Amherst student rep to the Board got up and blasted Wilson, saying that the meeting certainly did discuss definite ideas and sought approval for them, and that this was a meeting that attempted to set policy. Wilson said if that’s the way you feel go to the A. G. The student rep replied she would.
Have a look at the UMass Amherst Faculty Senate web site with Minutes for the 2006-2007 Academic Year.
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There is a pdf (150MB) of Jack Wilson’s May 3 PPT “University of Massachusetts: A Vision for One University”, marked CONFIDENTIAL. This was presented at the controversial Trustee dinner that was “not a meeting”. Wilson’s address to the Senate on May 17 is also linked there.
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Additional new material may appear there before minutes of the recent meetings are posted.
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