WVU faculty again votes to demand president resign

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) — Hundreds of West Virginia University faculty sent embattled President Mike Garrison a resounding message: It’s time to go.

In an informal gathering, they voted 563-35 Wednesday to demand that he resign over his administration’s handling of a master’s degree scandal involving the governor’s daughter.

It was the second such statement since last week, when the Faculty Senate passed a motion of a no confidence and a nonbinding demand that he step down.

Professor Boyd Edwards says the university cannot recover from a crisis under the very leadership that created it.

The faculty are hoping that hundreds of voices will be harder to ignore than the smaller Faculty Senate vote.

While the votes on the resignation were being counted, the faculty passed on a voice vote a resolution demanding a re-evaluation of the composition of the Board of Governors to increase its “transparency, representativeness and accountability.” The motion suggested a variety of ways to increase faculty and alumni representation.

Also passing on voice vote was a resolution urging the Faculty Senate to create an outside review panel to hear complaints from faculty, staff and students, particularly concerns about harassment, retaliation or retribution for speaking out against the administration.

The faculty overwhelmingly defeated another motion that had recommended any faculty member who threatens or intimidates a university employee, board member or other state executive be disciplined or dismissed immediately.

The motion, offered by professor Dallas Branch and rejected 527-23, stemmed from two fliers found in the engineering building last week that used the word “kill.”

The composition and font size were crafted carefully to avoid qualifying as a direct threat against either - 527 Governors or Gov. Manchin, and State Police said last week they did not consider the language criminal.

From a distance it reads, “Kill Joe Manchin,” although when read closer, does not advocate killing the governor — just his candidacy for re-election.

But campus Police Chief Bob Roberts said last week he found the language disturbing, as did Branch.

“Faculty colleagues, this is unacceptable. It may be seen as a joke to some,” Branch said. But after the mass murder at Virginia Tech last year, “Something like this cannot be taken as a joke.”

Two professors opposed the language of the motion as overly broad and warned it could have discourage free speech on campus.