General Faculty of Humboldt State University 2009
No Confidence Materials
Here are background, reports, editorial comments, and anything else for which faculty ask or which I think might be of use or interest regarding Humboldt State University General Faculty issues. I'm setting this up in May and June 2009. The General Faculty has voted a resolution finding no confidence in President Richmond and has found that he should step down within two months. Accordingly, most of the contents of this page will be relevant to that issue. At the end is a link to other General Faculty President reports.
---- If you wish to comment or to ask me questions, please e-mail me.
J. W. Powell, President, HSU General Faculty
NEW: Summary and Q and A re: No Confidence
Links to documents:
- Official Notice:
15 May 2009 Memorandum, from the Chair of the Faculty Senate and the President of the General Faculty, to Chancellor Reed and the Board of Trustees of the California State University, regarding HSU's faculty's finding of no confidence in President Richmond and that he should step down within two months. The vote, at an emergency meeting 12 May 2009, Tuesday of Finals week, was 128-4 with two abstentions. Included in the memo are summaries of background and issues and an annotated table of contents to the accompanying binder of materials, sent as a paper copy and as four Adobe .pdf files, which are also linked below.
Memorandum to Board of Trustees and Chancellor
- Responses:
- A perhaps overly testy faculty comment on official responses to the vote of no confidence:
25 May 2009.
Background Materials regarding No Confidence Resolutions:
- Chronicle of Higher Ed June 12 2009
interview with Prof. Mae Kuykendall (Michigan State Law School) regarding her work on no confidence resolutions. She told me (jwp) she planned to mention HSU's case in her presentation to the AAUP conference mentioned in this interview. Despite posturing by presidents, chancellors, and boards, the resolutions are often effective. (This link is provided with permission of the Chronicle of Higher Education, and will expire on July 24. It will be available to subscribers after that via the CHE archive.)
[Later note: a copy of the interview, apparently non-expiring, is on the
Michigan State Law School website. In correspondence with Prof. Kuykendall, she reminded me that the fact of no confidence is usually more important than the grounds for no confidence, and that Bills of Particulars need not accompany the news of a vote.]
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From an earlier (two years ago) post with links to various info.
- A search of
Inside Higher Ed or The Chronicle of Higher Education on the phrase "no confidence" will allow you to reach your own conclusions. Mine is that the CSU's attempts to brush away votes of no confidence demonstrates an ignorance, perhaps a willful ignorance, of how serious and effective such votes are in removing presidents, provosts, and deans. In some cases the votes are effective even when those voting for no confidence are not an overwhelming majority, or even when only a strong minority and not a majority at all. I think this is as it should be. Note that a Google search should probably be further restricted with other terms such as "university" or "university president," or "higher education."
- Another General Faculty President Page,
with reports to faculty.