RALEIGH -- Despite Chancellor Marye Anne Fox's appeal for reconsideration, N.C. State University's Faculty Senate passed Tuesday a finely tuned resolution censuring Fox for firing two members of the university's office of the provost.
The censure is designed to express the faculty's displeasure with Fox's actions.
Faculty dissent erupted Jan. 7 when Fox fired C. Frank Abrams, the provost's chief of staff and senior vice provost for academic affairs, and Bruce I. Mallette, vice provost for academic administration. Provost Stuart Cooper, who had refused to fire the two himself, resigned in protest.
"I hope that the strength of this censure will make her realize ... that she does need to change the way she interacts with faculty," said Professor Emeritus Kerry Havner, who drafted the approved censure.
Last week the Senate presented a censure resolution for consideration but delayed its decision only to pass a stronger version of the resolution Tuesday. The resolution will be sent to Fox and the N.C. State Board of Trustees.
The censure document will come as no surprise to Fox, who spoke at Tuesday's Senate meeting prior to the 29-6 vote in favor of the censure.
The terminations came after a long period of trouble with internal communications, Fox said in a phone interview after the meeting. She added that in large universities like N.C. State, internal communications typically are incredibly difficult.
But faculty senators did not buy this argument and passed Havner's tougher version of the censure.
Senators at the hearing reported having discussed the issue with fellow faculty members who supported a censure and said many called for a stronger censure. "The initial response of my colleagues in political science was that the (original) censure was weak," said Clifford Griffin, professor of political science.
