West Virginia State University faculty vote 67-15 to reject leadership of president Hazo Carter
Charleston Daily Mail
August 17, 2011
West Virginia State University faculty overwhelmingly rejected long-time President Hazo Carter's leadership Tuesday.
Believing that their college is stuck in a rut, professors voted 67-15 at a faculty meeting that they have 'no confidence' in Carter, the longest serving college president in West Virginia.
Only the university's Board of Governors can hire or fire a president. But despite being a symbolic vote, the faculty's 'no confidence' was a rare rebuke of a university administrator.
The last time faculty voted 'no confidence' in a West Virginia college's president - during the 2008 degree scandal at West Virginia University - the president was gone within weeks.
Carter became the head of State in 1987 and helped it become a full-fledged university in 2004. There are about 121 professors at State. Of them, 96 cast ballots Tuesday. Fourteen abstained.
Faculty Senate President Tim Ruhnke said professors feel Carter's administration has left the university rudderless.
He said "institutional stagnation" had set in and Carter had been repeatedly "unresponsive."
"You know when someone's not up to the task -- and it's not really something I feel great about, having to lead this process," Ruhnke said in an interview after the vote.
Declining enrollment, a poor public image and funding issues are among the top concerns of faculty, Ruhnke said.