Faculty Initiate Non-Confidence Vote on TRU Senior Administrators

Colleagues,

At the February 9^th General Faculty Meeting called to present the mediator’s recommendations and initiate a ratification vote, a motion was made from the floor, properly seconded and subsequently amended. The final motion read as follows:

Be it resolved that the faculty of Thompson Rivers University do hereby vote No Confidence in TRU President (Alan Shaver), Vice-President/Provost (Christine Bovis-Cnossen), Associate Vice-President Faculty Relations/TRU Chief Bargainer (Donna Petri), Vice-President Administration & Finance (Matt Milovick) and Vice-President Advancement (Christopher Seguin).

 

Be it further resolved that the TRU Faculty Executive be directed to conduct this vote at a time of their choosing after the ratification of the Collective Agreement.

Of the approximately 200 faculty members in attendance, 94% voted in favour of the motion.

As a result, the vote will be held on-line from 9am Tuesday, April 12^th until 4pm on Tuesday, April 19^th.

The vote will be conducted by the TRUFA Privacy Officer and Confidential Office Manager, Marian Griffin, and will be administered using FluidSurveys.

Each TRUFA member will receive a separate link to the poll and, once used, the link will disappear.

What do TRU faculty hope to achieve by holding this vote?

TRU faculty are committed to Thompson Rivers University and want to maintain what we have accomplished since 2005.  We are collectively committed to providing our students with the best possible education. To that end, what TRU faculty want to achieve through this vote:

• We want TRU senior administrators to respect and implement the shared governance model that applies to all universities through genuine, ongoing consultation with faculty members;
• We want TRU senior administrators to respect the primacy of governance bodies in academic decision-making
• We want TRU senior administrators to provide leadership for our university that is accessible, effective, accountable and transparent

As educators, we cannot remain quiet while the university is damaged by poor planning and a failure to respect faculty or their professional opinions.  We must use our voices in whatever way possible to protect TRU as a comprehensive, inclusive and credible university.

Need more information?

For more information on the Non-Confidence Vote and background please go to http://trutalk.ca/non-confidence-vote-backgrounder/

Over the next week, members of the TRUFA Executive will be holding open house drop-in sessions across campus to discuss the vote and background issues. Stay tuned for specific times and room numbers.

Due to the sensitive nature of the vote, TRUFA members are encouraged to use the new private discussion forum on TRUtalk.ca rather than discussing this vote on the TRU e-mail system. You must log-in in order to participate in the discussion forum.  Join the discussion.