MACHIAS, Maine — On May 19, the University of Maine at Machias (UMM) faculty assembly voted no-confidence regarding the University of Maine System (UMS) Chancellor Dannel Malloy's leadership performance, a UMM letter says.
UMM is now the fourth university in UMS to vote no-confidence for Malloy, in addition to the University of Maine at Augusta (UMA), the University of Southern Maine (USM), and the University of Maine at Farmington (UMF). UMF's no-confidence vote took place the day before, on May 18.
After reviewing Malloy's leadership decisions regarding the UMA Presidential search, UMM voted no-confidence in support of UMA, USM, and UMF's votes with a unanimous vote resulting in 11 for, zero against, the letter says.
The Associated Press reported that UMA and USM also voted no-confidence for Malloy in response to how he handled the search for a new UMA president.
Similarly, UMF's vote for no-confidence was in response to the presidential search and Malloy's retrenchment of the positions of nine UMF employees to help alleviate their budget crisis.
UMM also expresses anger towards Malloy's retrenchment of nine UMF employees that occurred on May 2.
"We echo the outrage of our colleagues at UMF about the impact of these retrenchments on the Humanities and Social Science programs, especially in light of the need for such programs in our current sociopolitical climate," UMM stated in the letter.
In response to the faculty retrenchments at UMF, UMM states a call-for-action in the letter that Malloy should look beyond the barriers of the contracts each of the nine employees signed and make sure they all receive new positions elsewhere regardless.
"While we are disheartened by recent events, the Machias faculty remain fully committed to working with UMS administrators and our faculty colleagues around the state to secure the best future for the University of Maine," UMM said in the letter. "We believe that direct, earnest, and active dialog between faculty, the System office, and the Board of Trustees is the only pathway beyond the present crisis in shared governance."
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