TCU faculty expressing lack of confidence in university leadership amid pandemic
TCU’s faculty is growing less confident in university leadership with how it is handling issues related to the coronavirus pandemic and racial injustices.
The frustration levels reached a point where the school’s Faculty Senate held a rare summer meeting on Wednesday night in which it discussed a vote of no confidence in university leadership.
A formal vote was not taken but one professor felt it would have passed had it been held.
“At this point, I tabled the discussion indefinitely to give the Faculty Senate executive committee time to figure out what the next steps should be,” said Sean Atkinson, an associate professor of music theory and chair of TCU Faculty Senate. “I’m meeting (Thursday) with constituents all over campus — other faculty, staff, students — to ensure that all the voices on campus have a chance to say what they need to say about this.
“No one is taking this lightly. Everyone has a really heavy heart that this is the discussion that we have to be having right now. The TCU community, the entire community of students, faculty and staff, we really want TCU to be the best it can be and want to make sure we have a real voice in decisions that shape our future. That’s really the crux of the problem.”
Atkinson pointed to three issues of disconnect between the faculty and administration — the plans on whether professors must teach in-person classes this fall (TCU announced late Thursday that faculty would have the option to teach remotely if desired); the reduction of benefits for employees; and the desire for the school to take stronger, more proactive measures on racial inequalities on campus.
Chancellor Victor J. Boschini, Jr. said he is “deeply concerned” that faculty members discussed a vote of no confidence in his and his team’s leadership abilities. Boschini has been the school’s chancellor since June 2003.
“I never want our faculty, or our staff for that matter, to be this upset — over any issue,” Boschini wrote in an email to the Star-Telegram. “Obviously we need to listen more carefully as they are so upset. We thought we were doing that — but, again, obviously not enough. We are in the process of continuing that as we speak.
“We need all of our employees to know that they are valued — especially at this very tense time in the life of our school ... and our nation for that matter.”
Atkinson said the faculty is hopeful they can reach meaningful solutions with the current administration on the issues.
Safety of returning to campus
Faculty members have been disappointed in the school’s plans to return to campus this fall.
Faculty members would like to have the option to teach remotely as they have done since pandemic hit in March. The school said late Thursday that it is now allowing faculty “the option to teach online if they choose to do so.”
“The coronavirus is constantly evolving,” a school spokesperson said. “The situation will continue to shift between now and when school starts Aug. 17.”
As of Wednesday morning, TCU had 70 active cases of COVID-19 (64 students, four employees and two contractors). Of the 70 cases, seven are deemed to have direct on-campus impact which means the individual was on campus within two days of symptom onset or receiving a positive test.
“Planning an on-campus reopening in the midst of a pandemic, especially when we’re seeing a record-high number of cases in Tarrant County, is nearly impossible,” Atkinson said.
Said Boschini: “We are asking each faculty member to do what they think is best for their individual course and their health and safety and that of their students. So far I have heard of about three or four different plans for how they will teach.”
Compensation reduction
Among the budget cuts TCU announced in May included changes to new employee benefit options, cutting retirement contributions from 11.5% to 8% and reducing employee tuition credits from 110% to 100% for employees and dependents.
At the time, Boschini said decision would “allow TCU to still maintain competitive employee benefits for current and future employees.”
For TCU faculty, these decisions haven’t sat well. An open letter, signed by 39% of the full-time faculty, as well as several part-time faculty, staff and retirees, expressed concern that the cuts were permanent.
“These were seemingly done in reaction to the pandemic, even though the pandemic should be a temporary financial burden for the university but yet we saw a permanent reduction to our salaries,” Atkinson said.
Boschini said he is still sad about the school having to take this measure, calling it an “unfortunate reality of the future of higher ed.”
“Our trustees have long thought that our benefits plan was not sustainable in the long term for our University,” he said. “I am hoping that this step might help to create a more sustainable plan going forward. I could be wrong — I have been wrong on at least 50% of what I have thought lately — but we will know for sure after next year if we no longer have a huge number of applicants for our on-campus positions.”
Racial injustices
With the country in the midst of a reawakening on racial injustices following the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died while in police custody last month, TCU’s faculty would like to see the university take more significant steps in becoming more inclusive and diverse.
Several current and former students, including former football standout Ben Banogu, have expressed similar concerns.
Atkinson said the faculty would like to see the university take a deep dive into its history of racial injustices.
“By doing that, we can meaningfully move forward on our mission to become more inclusive,” Atkinson said.
Boschini believes the university has been proactive when it comes to being more diverse and inclusive, but acknowledged there is more work to be done.
“I am committed to an anti-racist campus where everyone has a ‘place’ at the table,” he said. “We will do whatever necessary to achieve that goal. I also have the 100% support of our trustees to keep working toward that goal.”
The faculty is pushing the administration to become more transparent, from its budgets, to the health protocols in returning to campus, to having conversations about past racial injustices at the school.
“A lot of people don’t realize this, but TCU operates under a system of shared governance,” Atkinson said. “This is a process where staff, faculty and students are supposed to be part of the decision-making process for things that affect the entire campus.
“Yes, we understand that someone has to make a decision at the end of the day. But what faculty is upset about is that the governance groups on campus — there’s four representing faculty, staff, students and graduate students — have not been meaningfully engaged in these discussions. The question that we come back to as shared governance leaders is, ‘How can we be expected to contribute to shared governance if we don’t have shared information about the state of the university?’
“I’m hopeful that we can find solutions. I do not want to have to go down that road [of a vote of no confidence]. I want to be able to find a solution where we all can work together to figure out what we need to do as a community to pull through this.”
This story was originally published June 25, 2020 at 4:40 PM.
