March 22, 2021

During the Faculty Senate Special Session on Thursday, March 18, 2021, a motion passed enacting Article XII of the Faculty Senate Bylaws which calls for a plebiscite referral of the entire Faculty body. The referral is for a vote of no confidence in President Alexander’s ability to lead Oregon State University and calls upon him to resign. The motion in the Senate passed 108 in favor, 4 against, with 5 abstentions. See the webcast of the Special Session, proposed motions and voting results. Over 700 people attended the session or viewed the webcast.

The ballots for the plebiscite referral were emailed on the evening of Friday, March 19, 2021, using updated Inform lists provided by central IT. Votes were due by 11:55pm on Monday, March 22, 2021. This short time frame for the vote was deemed necessary for expedient response to the Senate-approved motion and the fact that faculty were likely to be away from email for Spring Break, so a longer voting period was unlikely to result in substantially more ballots returned.

We received a total of 1,864 votes of 4,735 ballots successfully sent (39.4% response rate).

The motion:

The Faculty of Oregon State University has no confidence in President Alexander’s ability to lead OSU in a way that is consistent with our values, and calls upon him to resign.

Passed with 1,548 Aye (83%), 218 Nay (11.7%), and 98 (5.3%) Abstentions.

No identifying information was collected for the vote, although IP addresses can be checked, if necessary. Requests for duplicate ballots or new ballots were denied unless the request was from a faculty member with appropriate status who definitely did not receive a ballot.

This overwhelming vote of no confidence and demand for resignation indicates a strong belief by the faculty that President Alexander should not continue at OSU. There were many opportunities to provide written and oral testimony, voice concerns over process, and ask questions. A recap of the activities undertaken by the Faculty Senate over the past two weeks can be reviewed on our website, https://senate.oregonstate.edu

This has been a tumultuous and difficult week. I appreciate all who engaged in the process and empathize deeply with survivors who found the events so difficult.

Selina Heppell, Faculty Senate President

 

Constituents of the Faculty Senate are: Instructor, Senior Instructor I, Senior Instructor II, Lecturer, Senior Lecturer I, Senior Lecturer II, Faculty Research Assistant, Senior Faculty Research Assistant I, Senior Faculty Research Assistant II, Research Associate, Senior Research Associate, Senior Research Associate II, Professional Faculty, Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Professor, Assistant Professor of Practice, Associate Professor of Practice, Professor of Practice, Assistant Professor (Extension), Associate Professor (Extension), Professor (Extension), Assistant Professor (Senior Research), Associate Professor (Senior Research), Professor (Senior Research), Assistant Professor (Clinical), Associate Professor (Clinical), and Professor (Clinical).

 

Subject: 
March 22, 2021