faculty governance

2/20/2011: Wisconsin is getting all the attention, but read about the faculty governance fight in Pocatello. From Insidehighered.com:

Siding With President, State Governing Board Suspends Idaho State’s Faculty Senate

The Idaho State Board of Education on Thursday suspended the Faculty Senate at Idaho State University, which voted no confidence last week in the university’s president, Arthur Vailas, The Spokesman-Review reported. Officials of the board, which governs all public education in the state, said the decision was “the most reasonable action to take at this time” given what it characterized as the disconnect between the faculty and Vailas, for whom the board had recently expressed support. “The impasse between the leadership of the senate group and the administration has reached a point where the prospect of any kind of progress was simply non-existent. It’s time to start over.” The board directed Vailas to develop an interim faculty body, the newspaper reported.

The statement from the ISU Faculty Senate Pres is here:

The bottom line if we do not fix this leadership crisis it will harm the education of students. And that is the primary mission of ISU. You cannot have even 10 percent of a group questioning your ability to lead if you wish to lead that group. And the 80 percent rejection of President Vailas simply is untenable for leading ISU. ISU badly needs competent and inspired leadership for the students and for the state. We want a strong university and we want to be the economic engine for Pocatello and southeast Idaho and the State of Idaho in general. The internal strife at ISU is killing ISU. We need an administration that cares for the faculty, staff, and students, the future of the institution,  the community of Pocatello, and for the state of Idaho. We need a leader who understands how to find and build on consensus.

The Idaho higher education board responded by suspending the faculty senate. Crazy shit.