The faculty union at Minneapolis Community and Technical College voted "no confidence" in college President Phil Davis on Tuesday, saying they don't trust him to better the campus culture.
The union had been poised to take such a vote in April but tabled it when administrators promised an outside review to address faculty concerns. This month, consultants released their report, which found that "the current cultural climate at MCTC needs to change" and issued recommendations.
Barbara Hager, president of the faculty union at MCTC, said members don't believe that the process suggested by the consultants will work with Davis as president.
"We've gone through those kinds of committees in the past," she said. "And no change has occurred."
Davis, president since 1998, said he has "embraced" the recommendations. In a statement, he said that "it's disappointing" that the union declined his invitation to "come together with me for the purpose of charting our next steps."
Steven Rosenstone, chancellor of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system, has supported Davis. In a letter Wednesday to college faculty and staff members, he said that "it is disappointing that a disgruntled minority of 44 of the college's 378 faculty ... have decided to take the confrontational approach."
Rosenstone praised Davis for recruiting the system's most diverse workforce, keeping the college financially healthy and overseeing the system's lowest tuition increase in 2011-12.
Hager declined to provide the number of faculty members who voted Tuesday.