Economics department becomes 19th unit to endorse A-Senate vote of no confidence
Central Michigan University's economics department has become the 19th unit on campus to endorse the Academic Senate's Dec. 8 motion of no confidence in University President George Ross and Provost Gary Shapiro.
The vote to endorse the resolution, held at the department's meeting last Friday, was unanimously approved by members present. Among the 17 academic departments to fall in line with the vote of no confidence, the 23-member economics department is the first among the College of Business Administration to endorse the resolution.
Along with the academic departments, CMU's library staff and Council of Chairs have also endorsed the resolution.
Paul Natke, economics department chairperson, said the department had more pressing matters to vote on in recent meetings and did not have significant discussions over the motion in the past.
"I think most of the faculty members were reluctant to make a decision or take a stand shortly after the Academic Senate did," Natke said. "In the meantime, the president and provost have been touring each department. We met with them in January, and we thought about it for a while and chose to vote last week."
Natke said the department did not have particular expectations for results from the endorsement. Natke said the fact that the economics department is the first among CBA to endorse the resolution is not significant, because economics is somewhat a social science.
"I don’t think we have any expectations in terms of outcome, just that, presumably, there’s a shared governance structure in place at the university," Natke said. "This is just one small gesture for us to endorse what the A-Senate as a whole has done"
