University of Southern Maine Faculty Senate votes no confidence in chancellor
May 13—University of Southern Maine faculty cast a vote of no confidence in University of Maine System Chancellor Dannel Malloy on Friday afternoon.
"I think we see this as a culmination of a very long year of setbacks for most of the universities in the system," said Faculty Senate Chair Shelton Waldrep.
The resolution cited the departure of three University of Maine System presidents within less than a year and a lack of faculty input in executive hiring, program and curriculum as reasons behind the vote. They also condemned Malloy's plan to centralize UMaine system management and expressed concerns about a decreasing amount of autonomy and independence for individual universities.
Waldrep said there was "robust" support for the resolution.
This is the second vote of no confidence in Chancellor Dannel Malloy this week.
On Wednesday, faculty at the University of Maine August passed a resolution of no confidence in the chancellor. The Augusta resolution focused on concerns with the presidential search process. The process resulted in the hiring of a candidate who had received a vote of no confidence from faculty at his previous institution.
In a response to the USM vote of no confidence, Malloy said that he respects the voices of faculty members and takes their concerns seriously. But he did not provide any specifics as to how he would address their concerns.
Instead he touted the changes he has made to the system since his tenure began in 2019. He pointed out some of the very things that the faculty described as concerns, including unified accreditation and moving the University of Maine School of Law to downtown Portland.
"The pace of change in undertaking these initiatives is itself the cause of anxiety at not only USM, but around our system," he wrote. "I appreciate that, and I look forward to working on my relationship with USM's faculty and its new president so that USM grows in stability and stature to advance these and other Board priorities and strengthen its own unique contributions in our university system."
The system is scheduled to announce the new USM president on Monday, and Malloy said in his statement Friday that he thought the resolution reflects faculty's anxiety about the transition.
Senate Chair Waldrep told the Press Herald that the vote has nothing to do with the new president. Waldrep said he is looking forward to working the chosen candidate, who has not yet been announced to the public.
Waldrep said the decision of faculty to vote that they have no confidence in the chancellor was instead the result of a series of changes and decisions Malloy has made, including the firing of tenured faculty at the University of Maine Farmington, spending $13.5 million per year to lease a building in downtown Portland for a new law school and altering faculty and staff hiring practices by taking power away from university provosts and giving more oversight to the system.
Another faculty member said she found Malloy's response demeaning.
"The email he sent to faculty is insulting and labels our concerns as a result of anxiety," said Lydia Savage, president of the USM chapter of the Associated Faculties of the Universities of Maine faculty union and chair of USM's geography-anthropology department. Savage said that the email made it sound as though the faculty were "frightened children."
"This is exactly the type of leadership in which we can have no confidence," she said. "Malloy is patronizing and condescending to the very people who have deep knowledge of universities and a deeper commitment to their success. We are not anxious about change and would embrace real change rather than the lack of a vision we have been offered by this administration."
This story will be updated.
