The University of Wyoming Board of Trustees met early today, April 8, to discuss the vote of no confidence that was conducted yesterday by the faculty senate. While the majority of the session was a private Executive Session, there were a few details to be gleaned by the public from the meeting.
To begin, President Seidel made the following statement before the session; “While I’m disappointed, I accept the outcome of the vote on the Faculty Senate Resolution 488 that expressed no confidence in my leadership. I think it’s important for me to say that I am fully committed to focusing my energy on the tasks at hand, namely working with the faculty, staff, students, and the board of trustees to address concerns around shared governance that have been raised in recent days. Yesterday I had a very constructive meeting with all the deans. We’ve committed to meeting regularly to begin to address these issues, and I’ll take additional steps to engage directly with faculty groups, staff, students, and other stakeholders. One thing I believe we can all agree on is that everyone has a role to play in supporting and contributing to shared governance. I believe I’ve worked effectively with the board of trustees over the last years to advance the University of Wyoming, and I hope that you will continue to support me and the progress that we’ve made together during my presidency. How we handle this pivotal moment is important to the future of this institution, which is clearly facing a crisis. And I believe that with your support, we can confront these issues directly, and we can emerge stronger than ever, and really importantly, with a more united campus community working together for our shared future.”
Following this, the Board went into Executive Session, which was not available for viewing by the public. After they finished, the Board stated their intention to create a committee, with Board Treasurer Kermit Brown stating, “The board is also mindful of the last paragraph of the senate resolution 488. And I am going to appoint a committee . . . that committee will be charged with working on communications and working on ideas to more fully engage shared governance in the university and more fully carry out the statement from the faculty.”
It appears that the Board has, for now, affirmed their support for allowing President Seidel to attempt to make things right with the faculty, and they have not, as far as we can tell, voted to terminate his status as president of the university. The coming weeks will likely determine whether this moment becomes a turning point or a deepening of division at the University of Wyoming.
