Temple University faculty have voted ‘no confidence’ in provost and board chair

More than 800 Temple University faculty members voted “no confidence” in Board of Trustees chair Mitchell Morgan and provost Gregory N. Mandel, the faculty union announced Monday.

That represents nearly 81% of the more than 1,000 faculty who cast votes during the weeklong process that ended Friday at 5 p.m.

The vote was held by the Temple Association of University Professionals (TAUP), the faculty union, which represents 2,600 faculty, librarians, and other academic professionals. The vote is largely symbolic and doesn’t carry the ability to authorize change, but it nevertheless sends a chilling message that the North Philadelphia university still is contending with unrest among its employees.

“While I respect the right of all faculty to express their view, my role as chair is to consider the best interest of the entire institution, and support its students, faculty and staff in pursuing our mission,” Morgan said after learning of the vote results. “I intend to continue doing just that.”

» READ MORE: Temple faculty union authorizes a vote of no confidence to take place against university leaders

TAUP held the no-confidence vote — its first in the union’s 50-year history — after hearing concerns from members about the university’s leadership, including its handling of the 42-day graduate student worker strike, its dropping enrollment, failures to renew contracts for some nontenured faculty, and vacancies in some key administrative jobs.

The campus also was shaken by the shooting death of Temple police Sgt. Christopher Fitzgerald in February, raising concerns about safety near campus.

The union had authorized taking a no-confidence vote in former president Jason Wingard, too, but he resigned last month. The university earlier this month named former law school dean and provost JoAnne A. Epps as acting president.

» READ MORE: After a tumultuous tenure, Jason Wingard has resigned as Temple University president

Wingard’s departure, the union said, did not resolve the concerns, which is why the union proceeded with the vote.

“Our concerns about the management of Temple were never about one person but about the way those in senior leadership have failed over the past several years to live up to Temple’s mission as Philadelphia’s public research university,” Jeffrey Doshna, president of TAUP, said at a 1 p.m. news conference on campus, where he announced that 825 of 1,030 faculty had voted in favor of no confidence.

Doshna did not call for Mandel or Morgan to step down and said TAUP would not formally request that.

“Our demands are about governance,” he said.

However, Laurie Robins, director of organizing for the Temple University Graduate Student Association, did call for their removal at the news conference, asserting that their leadership led to a “union-busting strategy” during TUGSA negotiations, including the university’s decision to cancel tuition remission and health insurance payments for striking members.

“They are not fit to run this university,” Robins said.

Doshna said TAUP wants the board to include key stakeholders, such as faculty, students, alumni, parents, and North Philadelphia residents, on the search committee for a new president. He also called for a change in membership on the Board of Trustees, where two-thirds of the 36 members are appointed by the board and the rest by the governor and top officials in the state House and Senate. The faculty senate president and student government president are currently nonvoting members, he noted.

“That has to change,” Doshna said.

Epps, the acting president, late Monday afternoon issued a statement, saying the university “respects and takes seriously the sentiment expressed by TAUP in this vote.

“As a community, we may not always agree — and we don’t have to — but if we don’t share our views, we cannot increase our understanding and move forward,” Epps said. “To ensure this, we must listen to the diverse perspectives of all Temple constituencies, act collaboratively and regain faculty confidence.”

Epps noted that she has been meeting with faculty — at the news conference, Doshna said he had met with Epps — students and government and community leaders, while trustees also have been meeting with deans, faculty, students and others.

Mandel, who previously served as dean of Temple’s law school, declined to comment beyond Epps’ statement. He was named interim provost by Wingard in August 2021 and provost that December.

Morgan, founder and chairman of Morgan Properties, has chaired the Temple board for more than three years.

It’s a critical time for union-university relations, as faculty embark on negotiations for a new contract. TAUP’s current pact expires later this year. In its news release, the union said the university will not negotiate on campus, but rather has pushed for “off-site, costly” negotiations.

“On-campus negotiations would allow for increased transparency and accessibility for TAUP members to engage with the process, and would be a small but significant step towards rebuilding trust in the Temple community in a concrete and meaningful way,” the union said.

Though it passed by a significant majority, the measure was not supported by all faculty. Some have questioned why the union would hold a no-confidence vote now when Temple also has struggled under prior presidents. When Wingard was in charge, some were concerned that it would send the wrong message to vote no confidence in Temple’s first Black president when he had been on the job less than two years and had been confronting post-pandemic problems — rising gun violence and a 14% drop in enrollment since 2019 — that are not in his control.

Some members also were concerned about taking a no-confidence vote as negotiations for a new contract were about to begin.

But the union said it became increasingly concerned when trustees’ response to the crises was to create a special committee to provide increased oversight, but it was made up only of current board members.

» READ MORE: Temple grad students overwhelmingly ratify agreement, ending their six-week strike

“Those who manufacture these crises cannot fix them alone,” the union said in its news release.

Doshna called for broader membership on that group.

Faculty began discussing the possibility of taking a no-confidence vote in university leadership as the graduate student strike, which began Jan. 31, dragged on and concerns about safety mounted after Fitzgerald’s Feb. 18 death. Faculty were particularly upset that the university stopped paying for health care and tuition remission for striking members. A settlement was finally reached and an agreement ratified last month.

The union held a meeting March 3 and its executive committee announced the following week that the union would convene another meeting to decide whether to have a vote. Union members authorized holding a no-confidence vote last month, with 84% of those voting being in favor of including at least one of the three, Wingard, Mandel, or Morgan.