What many consider trouble brewing in the Faculty Senate at ISU for approximately two years has recently come to a resolution of sorts. Whether or not the resolution was satisfying for many faculty members at ISU is a different story.
The bulk of the ongoing “trouble” began in Feb. 2011.
After reported attempts at mediation, the ISU Faculty Senate held a vote of “no confidence” against Idaho State University President Arthur Vailas, reportedly after receiving complaints from numerous faculty members about Vailas and governance.
About a week later, Vailas reportedly made a recommendation to the State Board of Education (SBOE) that the ISU Faculty Senate be disbanded.
Tab 9 of the SBOE’s meeting archives from April 19, 2012 labeled “Planning, Policy and Governmental Affairs,” confirms that in Feb. 2011 the “Board approved the suspension of the operation and bylaws of the ISU Faculty Senate, and authorized President Vailas to implement an interim faculty advisory structure.”
A provisional Faculty Senate was put in place in April 2011 after the election of an “interim, provisional faculty senate to develop a faculty constitution and senate bylaws for approval by the University President and the Board” was approved through the SBOE.
According to retired ISU professor, Robert Croker, a majority of the provisional Faculty Senate was made up of the same members as the originally disbanded group. Croker was a member of both groups.
“I believe that we’re going to see a very close version of what the administration has put together as a constitution to fit the needs, not of the university, but of the management style of the administration,” said Croker.
He added, “I don’t say leadership because there is none. It is management.”
In May 2011, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) found that the action in February by the SBOE to suspend the Faculty Senate was unjustified according to a May 24, 2011, press release from Gregory Scholtz, AAUP director, Department of Academic Freedom, Tenure and Governance.
“The new AAUP report finds that the action in February by the state board of education to suspend the faculty senate at Idaho State University not only violated fundamental principles of academic governance but poorly served the teaching and research mission of the University,” read the press release.
The report itself states that the ISU Faculty Senate was “the primary means of ensuring that the faculty performed its essential role in academic governance. When the state board, following the president’s recommendation, suspended the senate from operation, it effectively obliterated that role.”
The AAUP report traces “conflict between the faculty and the administration” back as early as fall 2008.
The provisional Faculty Senate ended in spring 2012 and elections for the new Faculty Senate were held this month with some “election-parameters” listed by the SBOE.
Two parts of the parameters have stirred up a great deal of controversy.
The first of those controversial parameters state “Faculty members who have served a full three-year Senate term within the past five years and a term on the provisional Faculty Senate this past year (i.e., two terms in five years), will not be eligible to serve on the new Faculty Senate for the first term (Fall 2012 through Spring 2015).”
This parameter was modified by ISU administration.
A memo from Interim Provost Barbara Adamcik was sent out after the administration heard faculty concerns over their modification to the technical SBOE approved the parameter.
The memo stated that the technical definition has been simplified to be “anyone who has served on the Senate for any three of the past five academic years (AY 2007-AY2012)” for reasons further explained in the memo.
“I realize that a university is not a democracy,” said Croker, “but we live in a democracy. When we say ‘I’m going to eliminate certain people from having a voice’ it’s more like living in a dictatorship than a democracy.”
The second controversial parameter stated “The scope of responsibilities of the Faculty Senate will be defined by the President.”
“The problem is the Faculty Senate that has been ‘elected’ will not be able to handle any business except that approved by the president,” said ISU professor Tim Frazier.
He continued, “Basically it’s not representative of the faculty at all and of course that’s the purpose of the senate.”
Frazier, who was a member of both the originally disbanded senate and the provisional senate, said these issues concern him very much.
“I’ve vested much of my life into this institution,” Frazier said. “It’s just a shame to watch what’s happening.”
Representative Faculty Senate elections occurred in various colleges at ISU over the last few weeks.
Prior to the elections, an off-campus meeting was held Sept. 27. At the meeting, issues regarding the current situation were discussed.
In an Oct. 15 memo sent to faculty by Adamcik, results of new Senators were announced. In the memo, Adamcik commended the faculty who ran for senate seats as well as the faculty who “had the courage to vote in the elections.”
“I know there was a widespread campaign waged to discourage faculty from running, and to discourage faculty from voting,” wrote Adamcik. “I think it’s unfortunate that this happened.”
The first meeting of the newly elected Faculty Senate will be on Monday, Oct. 22 at 4 p.m. in the Rendezvous Senate conference room.
