University of Kentucky faculty body votes ‘no confidence’ in President Eli Capilouto

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A faculty body at the University of Kentucky passed a vote of “no confidence” in President Eli Capilouto on Monday afternoon.

The university senate held the vote after two months of disagreements about the role of the senate, where they expressed concerns about the process Capilouto used to present a new university governance structure to the board of trustees.

The senate voted 58 in favor and 24 opposed, with 11 abstentions, on the “resolution of no confidence” at their last regularly scheduled meeting of the semester. The resolution also calls on the board of trustees to “redo the process of shared governance reform” to address the senate’s concerns, and to develop new recommendations.

After the vote, the senate considered adding a vote of no confidence in the board of trustees, though it failed to get enough support to be introduced and a vote was not taken.

DeShana Collett, chair of the senate council, said the vote of no confidence was “not personal,” but about the process used over the last several months that she said left faculty feeling ignored.

“This is about integrity,” Collett said. “This is about transparency.”

Collett said she hopes the president will sit down with faculty members as they formulate what the new faculty senate will look like.

“This was a big move for the senate, and it wasn’t taken lightly,” Collett said.

A vote of no confidence does not immediately result in the removal or firing of a university president. The vote is symbolic of the faculty’s lack of trust in leadership, signaling from the voting body that they take issue with an aspect of the university’s leadership or decision-making.

“In formulating his recommendations, the President made significant, repeated management errors that have created unnecessary confusion, anxiety, and risk within the UK community,” the resolution read.

The resolution also said Capilouto “created unnecessary and harmful division when he amplified false narratives that faculty members on the University Senate do not prioritize student needs or value diverse representation.”

Capilouto has been the president of UK since 2011, and holds the longest tenure of any other current public university president in the state. He’s one of the highest-paid public university presidents in the country, according to U.S. News and World Report.

Capilouto has been praised by trustees for his job performance, but in his most recent performance evaluation , the board listed strengthening relationships with faculty and shared governance as areas for improvement.

In an email sent after the vote, Capilouto said he intends to work together with the UK community on the revisions to the governing regulations.

“I know that some among our faculty are concerned about these revisions,” Capilouto said. “I understand the concerns and respect those who have voiced them. Moving forward, my hope is that we will come together. We don’t have to all agree about the changes, but I hope we all agree that we must continue to move forward as a community.”

Board of trustees chair Britt Brockman echoed his support for Capilouto and his leadership.

“Let me be clear: the board of trustees unequivocally supports President Capilouto, who is the right person at an important moment of change to lead Kentucky’s university,” Brockman said. “Change is hard. Leadership requires making tough decisions, and doing the right thing even in the face of criticism.”

New governance structure raised concerns

Faculty on Monday said they had issues with the process used to formulate new governing regulations. Molly Blasing, Associate Professor of Russian Studies, said shared governance had not been in practice over the last several months.

“This process has not been transparent and we have not been allowed to be partners in moving forward together,” Blasing said.

The university senate called for the vote of no confidence after trustees approved changes to the current governance structure. Under the new structure, the university senate will move to an advisory role. The Student Government Association and staff senate will also be advisory, and a new president’s council, made up of students, faculty and staff who will advise the president, will be created.

UK votes to dissolve university senate, strips role of helping set school policies

The university senate will become the faculty senate and lose its current policy-making powers, like approving academic courses and setting admissions standards.

Items that the senate currently oversees, like new courses or curriculum, will instead go through an approval process at the departmental level, then go to the provost and board for approval. The board also approved a slate of changes to the university’s governing regulations, which lay out how the university operates and what authority is given to the president, board of trustees and other university bodies.

At the April board meeting, faculty members told the board they wanted to bring more student and staff voices into decision-making, but opposed the process used to propose changes to the board. Capilouto said he met with more than 1,000 people and gathered feedback on the governance structure through an online form, but some faculty members said they had felt excluded from the process of crafting a new governance structure in recent months.

While the Student Government Association and the staff senate both passed resolutions in favor of the changes, the university senate — which is made up of mostly faculty, but also has student members — passed multiple resolutions opposed.

The university senate has never held a vote of no confidence in the president, said Davy Jones, UK professor emeritus who tracks the history of the university’s governance, though department faculty has voted no confidence in department chairs.

In 1989, the university senate council passed a resolution requesting that former Kentucky Gov. A.B. “Happy” Chandler resign from the board after using a racial slur, and in 1999, the senate passed resolutions urging the board to rescind a contract extension from former President Charles Wethington Jr., according to Herald-Leader and Kentucky Kernel archives.