Penn State’s Faculty Senate on Tuesday tabled a motion to vote no confidence in university President Neeli Bendapudi, hours after the university announced it is expecting to close of some Commonwealth Campuses.
A motion to express no confidence in Bendapudi was brought forward by Julio Palma, a chemistry professor at Penn State Fayette, before Daniel Foster, a professor in the College of Agricultural Sciences, moved to table the vote. The motion to table passed with 69.4% of senators in favor.
“This motion is not just because of what is happening at the campuses,” Palma said of the proposed no confidence vote. “This motion is because of what is happening at our university.”
Palma raised issues with Penn State’s budget new budget model and its impact on research and education, the anticipated closure of some Commonwealth Campuses, a failure to uphold commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion, including the cancelation of a Center for Racial justice and failing to engage with the senate on decision making .
“We have, as a Faculty Senate, to take responsibility for our role,” Palma said. “We are the stewards of the curriculum. We have to protect academic freedom. We have to advocate for shared governance and practice shared governance.
“It’s never a good time to make this motion, but we need to make a statement because we are concerned about the direction of this university. Not taking that step would be a mistake.”
Several senators disagreed with the motion from the onset.
“I do not believe that this is productive,” Foster said before moving to table the motion. Several senators jumped to second Foster’s motion.
The attempt came after Bendapudi and the university announced it was looking at closing several of 12 Commonwealth Campuses. At least seven campuses will remain open, and Bendapudi guaranteed that at least some of those 12 campuses — Beaver, DuBois, Greater Allegheny, Fayette, Hazleton, Mont Alto, New Kensington, Schuykill, Shenango, Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, and York — would also continue to operate.
The motion of no confidence doesn’t carry any tangible weight, but the Faculty Senate’s vote could have made waves across the university following the administration’s decision regarding Commonwealth Campuses.
Throughout a two-hour question-and-answer session with faculty members and Bendapudi on Tuesday, both parties repeatedly addressed the issue of trust between the faculty and the administration. Bendapudi addressed the expected vote of no confidence, saying regardless of what happened, she would work with the Faculty Senate moving forward.
During the virtual plenary meeting, faculty members repeatedly asserted that neither party trusted the other. Bendapudi often spoke on the importance of building trust and shared governance between the Faculty Senate and the administration.
Several faculty members asked how they would be involved in making determinations about which campuses would be cut, what the budget would look like and more. Bendapudi reiterated that while she and her cabinet would listen to faculty input, all decisions fell strictly on her shoulders.
The vote of no confidence does not die with Tuesday’s meeting. Per Faculty Senate rules, senators can bring the motion forward at the next plenary meeting.
The full university Faculty Senate measure wasn’t the only one against Bendapudi. At least two Faculty Senates — at Penn State Altoona and Penn State Greater Allegheny — considered similar measures. A vote of no confidence at Penn State Greater Allegheny passed.
