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The faculty union at Owens Community College in Toledo, Ohio, recently voted no confidence in the college’s president, Board of Trustees, chief financial officer and vice president of business affairs, The Toledo Blade reported.
The majority of union members, 86 percent, signaled their lack of support for campus leadership, said Paul Adams, president of the Owens Faculty Association. He told the Blade that a lack of communication and a failure to sufficiently involve faculty members in college governance prompted the move.
The union has a history of no-confidence votes against college leaders. This is the fifth vote of its kind in the last 14 years, the Blade reported. The union voted no confidence in former president Christa Adams in 2009 and 2014 and in former president Mike Bower in 2015. It took the same measure against trustees and administrators in 2016 and against trustees again in 2018.
Dione Somerville, president of Owens Community College since 2021, said no-confidence votes by the union are nothing new.
“The current faculty union leadership has pushed for no-confidence votes against every single Owens administration for the last 14 years, and that’s their choice,” Somerville said in a statement. “I remain committed to building upon our successes for our students and the community and I’m excited about our increasing enrollment and the success of our students, and I can’t wait to see those who join us for summer term or later this fall.”
The recent vote of no confidence comes after the Ohio attorney general’s office reviewed a complaint of gender or sex discrimination and retaliation by Lisa Nagel, former vice president of administration and chief legal counsel, last August. Though the investigative report concluded the allegations should be dismissed, Paul Adams said the report highlighted mismanagement and mistreatment of employees among campus leaders.
Sherina Ohanian, chair of the Board of Trustees, said the board supports Somerville.
“The progress we have seen under her leadership is evident by positive events that are happening at the college,” she said in a statement. “It is disappointing to see the unfounded negative communications from one of the unions on campus.”
