Despite the overwhelming percentage of faculty at UW-Oshkosh voting no confidence in Chancellor Andrew Leavitt, the Universities of Wisconsin System and Faculty Senate President support him fully.
164 professors at UW-Oshkosh said they had no confidence in Leavitt in their recent vote. According to Wisconsin Public Radio, there are 281 faculty members, and 229 of them participated in the vote. Leavitt claimed in a blog post after the no confidence vote was announced that the claims against him were “inaccurate.”
This came after UW-Oshkosh “made the decision in Oct. to discontinue over 200 non-faculty positions, including 140 layoffs, 76 retirements and approximately 35 open positions,” as stated previously in the Feb. 21 issue of The Exponent.
In response to the no confidence vote, Faculty Senate President Pascale Manning met with Leavitt to discuss why the no confidence vote was decided. “I was heartened by the conversation and by Chancellor Leavitt’s clear concern to address the issues raised by faculty,” Manning wrote in her blog.
The UW System president Jay Rothman and multiple UW Board of Regents members fully support Leavitt in the decisions he has made in response to the debt at UW-Oshkosh.
As stated by the FDL Reporter, “Only the Regents Board has the authority to fire UW chancellors, although a 2022 analysis by the Chronicle of Higher Education showed college presidents leave office within a year about 50% of the time they receive a no-confidence vote.”
“The faculty referendum results released today are a reaction to hard but necessary decisions I have made as Chancellor,” Leavitt said. “In a matter of months, UWO has reduced an $18 million deficit to approximately $3 million.”
In the recent UW audit, it has been projected that the UW-Oshkosh will have $88.1 million in debt by 2028.
