Ohio University faculty members overwhelmingly said they have no confidence in President Roderick McDavis, echoing a similar no-confidence vote last week by students.
The American Association of University Professors for the second year surveyed faculty members about the performance of three top administrators and found similar results ' the majority of the 48 percent of the faculty members who responded have no confidence in McDavis, Kathy Krendl, executive vice president and provost, and Charles Bird, vice president for regional higher education.
(This is) one easy way the faculty can hold the administration marginally responsible and accountable for what they do
said Joe Bernt, journalism professor and AAUP treasurer. We will do it year in and year out.
The survey, which is not officially sanctioned by the university, is not without critics, who charge that the survey is a popularity contest and that recent criticism of McDavis is spurred by racism.
McDavis, in San Francisco attending a conference about campus diversity with two other presidents of predominately white schools, was unavailable for comment.
He is expected to address a different evaluation of his performance by the Board of Trustees when it is released later this month, said Sally Linder, a university spokeswoman. She could not say if McDavis would address the AAUP evaluation.
The survey asks faculty members to answer six questions about each administrator and indicate to what level they agree or disagree. About 20 percent disagreed somewhat and 57 percent disagreed with giving McDavis a vote of confidence, totaling 77 percent of those who participated.
About a combined 75 percent of participating faculty members said he is not moving the university in the right direction.
Krendl, however, fared slightly better in the review with about 67 percent indicating no confidence. Bird's evaluations were the worst with about 82 percent of participating regional campus faculty members saying they had no confidence. Athens campus faculty members were not asked to evaluate Bird.
The surveys were distributed through postal mail after a recent administrative shake-up elevated Krendl to oversee all facets of academics at the university.
Kevin Mattson, AAUP president, said that the vote is a litmus test of what faculty members think about the restructuring.
This vote arrives on the heels of another vote of no confidence by students last week in which the majority of an unusually high number of voting students indicated they too have no confidence. The question was included on the student senate election ballot.
Some critics, including Jessie Roberson, professor and president of the Caucus of Educators and Staff of African Descent, have said faculty members are not able to fairly evaluate top administrators.
(McDavis) is going to have 20 000 people supposedly assessing his performance most of whom have no idea what it is that he is suppose to be doing
Roberson said in an interview two weeks ago. Roberson was unable to be reached to comment for this story.
Roberson also alleges that the AAUP is using the survey to muster chaos, an environment that he said would be more apt to unionize. Bernt vigorously denied the charge.
We think that faculty and also students have a perfect right to evaluate the leadership of the university
Bernt said.
In last year's survey, nearly 75 percent of participating faculty members disapproved of McDavis and the majority of also disapproved of Krendl and Bird. About 46 percent of the faculty voted.
Last year's evaluation was accomplished despite attempts by the trustees to block it. The trustees blocked the provost from approving the evaluation and the university refused to allow the AAUP to distribute surveys through the university's mailing system.
This year's survey is the latest crest in a surge of criticism against the administration this quarter. Last month, distinguished professors sent a letter to the trustees urging them to institute change or remove leadership.
That letter was followed by another from Roberson, representing COESAD, supportive of McDavis. At the time, Roberson also alleged that race was a factor in the anti-McDavis sentiment.
That was followed by two protests on College Green, one critical and one supportive of McDavis. Those protests were divided along racial lines.
Later this month, the trustees will release the results of their evaluation of McDavis. That evaluation is in its second year. The results of a recent Faculty Senate survey of faculty perception of the McDavis leadership is expected later this week.
The 360-degree evaluation ' as it's called ' seeks input from all five university senates, deans and many administrative staffs. Trustees make the final decision.
R. Gregory Browning could not say in an interview last week if the AAUP survey would be considered for the trustees' evaluation.
We've got a multi-step evaluation
and we will listen to all of the legitimate voices of the university
obviously including the faculty
he said.
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