Dear Colleagues,

Yesterday the Faculty Senate unanimously, with no abstentions, adopted a resolution of no confidence in the EMU Board of Regents regarding the ongoing participation in the EAA and the Board’s decision on December 8, 2015 to delay consideration of that partnership. I have attached the no confidence resolution to this message.

The Faculty Senate resolution reflects a broad faculty consensus across colleges and departments. Indeed, the resolution originated at the departmental level. On December 11 the Department of Teacher Education unanimously adopted a motion of no confidence in the leadership of the Board of Regents. It also unanimously supported a motion of censure of Board Chair Michael Morris. Teacher Education forwarded these documents to the Faculty Senate Executive Board (FSEB) on December 14. I called a meeting of the FSEB on December 15 to discuss next steps on the EAA, including the possibility of a vote of no confidence. The FSEB found the justification for the vote of no confidence—that the Board of Regents had violated several articles of its own Code of Ethics—to be compelling. We decided that the best way to proceed on the motions was to forward them to the college councils for consideration. Below is the chronology of actions taken by the college councils.

• On December 18, the College of Education Council supported the motion of no confidence by a vote of 5-0-2. It also supported the censure motion by 4-0-2.
• On January 7, College of Arts and Sciences College Advisory Council voted 14-0-1 in support of both motions.
• The College of Technology advisory council voted 6-0-1 on both motions on January 11.
• On January 13 the College of Health and Human Services Faculty Advisory Council adopted a resolution supporting the motion of no confidence by a vote of 7-0 with one member absent.
• Finally, on January 14, the Library College Council voted unanimously, 19-0-0 to support the motion of no confidence.

The Faculty Senate unanimously supported the statements of the Department of Teacher Education on January 20. The FSEB introduced for a first reading its own resolution of no confidence at the January 20 meeting of the Senate.

We remain hopeful that the Board will finally heed the calls from all EMU stakeholders to withdraw from the EAA. As you may know, state Senator Arian Meekhof was quoted in the Detroit Free Press yesterday as saying that the EAA will be dissolved: “It’s gone. We’re not going to do the EAA again.”

I have sent the resolution to all of the members of the Board and urged them do the right thing by terminating EMU’s involvement in the Interlocal Agreement in advance of action by the Governor and/or the State Legislature. Such a decision would signal to the faculty and the entire EMU community that the Regents place the interests of EMU above any other considerations. It would also allow us to begin to mend the relationship between the faculty and the Board and to once again focus on how we can work together and achieve our shared vision of EMU as a “premier public university recognized for student-centered learning, high quality academic programs and community impact.”

Sincerely,

Judy Kullberg

[Read the resolution here.]