On April 3, the University of Maine’s Faculty Senate sent a letter addressed to President Joan Ferrini-Mundy, Chancellor Dannel Malloy and the Board of Trustees (BoT) expressing dissatisfaction with university leadership. The document claims that university leaders have broken their commitment to shared governance through a lack of communication with faculty. This comes after all UMaine departments were asked to cut their budgets by 7%.
The primary issues raised in the statement were a lack of communication between administration and the Faculty Senate, unexpected financial decisions, a need for a peer-approved hiring process for UMaine’s leadership positions and a concern for the future of UMaine.
According to the survey outlined within the letter, a majority of the senate recorded concerns about ineffective use and attributed violations of shared governance policies outlined in previous agreements. Faculty Senate President Henri Akono reported at the April 15 open meeting that the letter has also been endorsed by the graduate student government.
“The President has failed to maintain a stable and effective leadership team evidenced by the current reliance on appointments…for six critical positions,” the Faculty letter stated. “[With] the turnover of ten Chiefs of Staff in eight years… [there is] no formal shared plan to resolve this leadership instability,” wrote Faculty Senate members in the joint statement addressed to UMS leadership.
The letter continued by stating the importance of communication between administrators and faculty and adherence to shared governance principles in the hiring process.
“Recently, the President appointed a Provost without faculty consultation or prior communication, which is a direct violation of both shared governance principles and tradition of how these positions are filled. Rushing to fill positions through a poor process is as bad as having these positions open,” stated the letter.
As a result of a lack of confidence in UMS administrators, Faculty Senate members added that UMaine faculty are “unable to fully execute their jobs, lack support and are deeply concerned about the leadership leading us into an unsustainable and poorly planned future.”
The letter also included survey data showing widespread discontent from 314 faculty members, demonstrating low confidence in administrators as well as stated low morale. Finally, the letter contained a request for Ferrini-Mundy to acknowledge its receipt at an open Faculty Senate meeting on April 15.
Ferrini-Mundy complied with this request and made a formal acknowledgement of her receipt of the faculty statement during a brief speech at the open Faculty Senate meeting. She emphasized her commitment to better communication between the administrators and the Faculty Senate in the future.
She elaborated on her thoughts surrounding the letter in an interview with the Maine Campus following the meeting.
“[I had] a sense of really being pleased to be able to understand concerns in a clearly laid out way, and to give us kind of the beginnings of a roadmap, as you heard them [the Faculty Senate] say, for moving forward,” said Ferrini-Mundy when asked about her thoughts upon first receiving the letter. She added that “a lot of communication and a lot of collaboration” is the key to improving the university.
Ferrini-Mundy said she intends to address the concerns raised in the letter in a timely manner, starting with a formal report to the next Faculty Senate, expected by May 31, detailing plans for an official hiring process for university leadership positions.
“There’s an actual expectation of a report at the end of May that we will provide, of course, but really, our work is ongoing and very integrated,” said Ferrini-Mundy. “You heard committee reports today that have faculty representatives sitting on them, you heard of committees where the administration attends and so forth. A lot of this is really using the mechanisms that we already have to just keep doing more communication, more transparency and making sure that we’re using all of those mechanisms well.”
Meanwhile, Malloy and the BoT have already issued a response to the Faculty Senate letter expressing their support for Ferrini-Mundy as president of UMaine, but also a willingness to increase collaboration between administration and faculty.
“We want to be clear and unequivocal: President Joan Ferrini-Mundy and her Cabinet have our full confidence and support.”
The response letter addressed the issues of shared governance, the hiring process for administrators, communication and transparency. There seems to still be a disparity between the ideas of the Faculty Senate and the ideas of the administrators, but the letters are the first step in closing that gap.
This story is developing and any updates, including further insight into faculty perspectives, will be provided as information becomes available.
