Senate initiates vote on Salsbury’s leadership


Western Colorado University faculty will vote on whether President Greg Salsbury should keep his job after the Faculty Senate approved putting a statement “in support of new leadership at Western” up for a facultywide vote this week.

 

 

Western Colorado University faculty will vote on whether President Greg Salsbury should keep his job after the Faculty Senate approved putting a statement “in support of new leadership at Western” up for a facultywide vote this week.

The senate voted 11-3 to send the statement to faculty. During the senate meeting Monday, Brad Burton, the Rady Chair in Petroleum Geology, resigned from his position as senate chair.

“One of the jobs of the Senate Chair is to be the faculty advisor to the President. I feel that I can no longer adequately represent the majority opinion of Faculty Senate, and therefore it was time for a change in Senate leadership,” Burton told the Times on Tuesday. He will continue to serve as an at-large member of the senate.

Faculty members will have one week to cast anonymous, online ballots on whether they support the statement starting Friday. The results of the vote will then be understood as a binding resolution for the senate.

Senators made clear that they do not officially endorse the statement by sending it to faculty. They are hoping to gather an accurate representation of faculty sentiments by holding a vote.

The statement lays out in 11 “whereas” statements and two-and-a-half pages of footnotes why Salsbury should be replaced after seven years leading Western. It cites his Jan. 7 statement about the Capitol riot, his “misunderstanding and dismissiveness” toward diversity and equity issues, his avoidance of constructive critiques, turmoil among students and staff during his tenure and the problems that his moral leadership present to student recruitment and retention.

A senate committee formed Feb. 8 drafted the statement. The stated purpose of the document is to “assess the information gathered from faculty and students by Faculty Senate with respect to President Salsbury’s leadership.”

The statement comes after more than a month of discussion on evaluations of Salsbury’s performance, which was sparked following a controversial email at the beginning of January. Some faculty allege that Salsbury in that email conflated the Jan. 6 insurrection with the Black Lives Matter protests from last summer. The statement cites that email, titled “Voice Against Violence,” as “the most recent example” of the “leadership failures” enumerated by the statement’s authors.

The faculty vote comes after weeks of discussion and debate in the faculty senate. In January, Burton told the Times that if a vote of no confidence was to proceed, a faculty-wide vote, rather than simply a Faculty Senate vote, would be needed for the senate to take a stance on whether Salsbury should stay or go.

Senators discussed the possibility of taking a vote of no confidence Jan. 11. They decided to go to their respective departments to gather feedback from other faculty members. At the Jan. 11 meeting, senators said some departments had varying opinions on Salsbury.

The referendum will be available for faculty to vote on from Friday, Feb. 26 to Friday, March 5. The faculty constitution refers to official faculty members as anyone with tenure, a probationary or temporary contract, department chairs and professional library staff.

The faculty senate does not have the power to fire Salsbury. That authority lies with the Board of Trustees, which is scheduled to meet March 26.

In a statement to the Times, Salsbury commented, “It is important to me to hear from all the faculty before I offer my response. Until then, I will continue to focus on the well-being of Western, with an aim of seeing it thrive despite the many challenges we face in higher education today.”

Here is the full statement sent to faculty members for their vote:

Referendum statement

Referendum statement

Referendum statement

Referendum statement

(Roberta Marquette can be contacted at 970.641.1414 or at roberta@gunnisontimes.conz.)

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