The WMU-AAUP chapter membership has voted “no confidence” in the leadership of Provost Tim Greene by a substantial majority. Quantitative results are enclosed below. Detailed summaries of the qualitative responses will be available in the coming days.

Some prefatory information is necessary for understanding the data.

For all electronic surveys conducted by the WMU-AAUP, a third-party service is contracted to ensure that all faculty information (even about whether any individual faculty member participated) is kept confidential. This means that neither chapter officers nor the chapter staff have access to any individual answers or to information about who participated. Only the aggregated totals are shared with us. We then share these with the faculty.

This is important to go over in light of an error in the survey as it initially appeared last Friday, January 30. For question #4, participants should have been able to select as many answers as they thought applied. The error was that participants were able to select only a single answer for that question. Before that error could be corrected, 80 faculty colleagues had already participated in the survey.

Early on Friday evening, the error was corrected, and participants were then able to select multiple options in response to question #5 if they chose. When the correction was made, the responses of the first 80 participants were saved and, as we learned on Tuesday, a new count was begun.

Unfortunately, however, that correction made it possible for participants who had already responded to the original survey on Friday afternoon to respond a second time, after the error had been corrected.

We do not believe that any faculty members would have voted twice with the intention of having two votes counted, but some may have returned to the survey believing that a second vote would supersede their first. It did not. Any new vote submitted after the correction was made would have been automatically included in the new count.

When we learned on Tuesday that it could have been possible for colleagues in the first group of 80 to complete the survey a second time, we asked our computing services contractor whether there is a way that they could determine the extent of any overlap between the two groups of participants. There is not.

Therefore, although we believe that the number of colleagues who might have responded twice is probably small, we are presenting each data set separately, with one set reflecting the responses of the first 80 participants and the second reflecting the responses of the 278 colleagues who completed the survey after the corrections to question #4 were made.

For each of the data sets, each participant could submit only a single vote. This means that we can stand by each set independently, but we cannot aggregate the two sets.

Thanks to all of you who participated in the survey. Now for the results.

Question 1. Please select the option below that best reflects your feelings about the leadership of WMU Provost Tim Greene:

Results of first set of responses (n = 80):

I have CONFIDENCE in Provost Greene’s leadership:             15 (18.75%)

I have NO CONFIDENCE in Provost Greene’s leadership:       65 (81.25%)

Results of second set of responses (n = 278)

I have CONFIDENCE in Provost Greene’s leadership              66 (23.74%)

I have NO CONFIDENCE in Provost Greene’s leadership        212 (76.26%)

Question 2. (OPTIONAL QUESTION) Please indicate your agreement or disagreement with the following statement:

I believe that Provost Greene upholds and defends the core values and academic mission of Western Michigan University.

Results of first set of responses (n = 80; 13 skipped question):

Agree              12        (17.91%)

Disagree          55        (82.09%)

Results of second set of responses (n = 278; 33 skipped question):

 Agree              66        (26.94%)

Disagree          179      (73.06%)

Question 3. (OPTIONAL QUESTION) Please indicate your agreement or disagreement with the following statement:

I believe that Provost Greene should continue in his current position.

Results of first set of responses (n = 80; 7 skipped question):

Agree              12        (16.44%)

Disagree          61        (83.56%)

Results of second set of responses (n = 278; 32 skipped question):

Agree              59        (23.98%)

Disagree          187      (76.02%)

Question 4. (OPTIONAL QUESTION) Please check the box next to your college or academic unit. If you are affiliated with more than one, please select the home of your primary appointment.

Results of first set of responses (n = 80; 13 skipped question):

College of Arts and Sciences                                                 40 (59.7%)

College of Aviation                                                                  0

Haworth College of Business                                                  2 (2.99%)

College of Education and Human Development                       13 (19.4%)

College of Engineering and Applied Sciences                           3 (4.48%)

College of Fine Arts                                                                  4 (5.97%)

College of Health and Human Services                                     4 (5.97%)

Center for English Language & Culture for Intl Students            0

University Libraries                                                                    1 (1.49%)

Counseling Services                                                                  0

Results of second set of responses (n = 278; 43 skipped question):

College of Arts and Sciences                                      127      (54.04%)

College of Aviation                                                       6          (2.55%)

Haworth College of Business                                      16        (6.81%)

College of Education and Human Development           22        (9.36%)

College of Engineering and Applied Sciences              20        (8.51%)

College of Fine Arts                                                     14        (5.96%)

College of Health and Human Services                       19        (8.09%)

CELCIS                                                                        4          (1.70%)

University Libraries                                                       5          (2.13%)

Counseling Services                                                    2          (0.85%)

Total numbers of faculty in each college or unit at WMU and percentage of WMU-AAUP bargaining unit as a whole (n = 886):

College of Arts and Sciences                                     345      (38.9%)

College of Aviation                                                      20        (2.25%)

Haworth College of Business                                      80        (9.0%)

College of Education and Human Development          111      (12.5%)

College of Engineering and Applied Sciences              90        (10.1%)

College of Fine Arts                                                     81        (9.14%)

College of Health and Human Services                        111      (12.5%)

CELCIS                                                                        15        (1.69%)

University Libraries                                                        22        (2.48%)

Counseling Services                                                     11        (1.24%)

Question 5. (OPTIONAL QUESTION) Please check the issue(s) or concern(s) you considered most important in determining your answer to question #1. Select as many as apply.

Results of first set of responses (n = 80; 14 skipped question):

Note: In an error on the original survey, only one of the options below could be checked. This affected the options and responses of the first 80 survey respondents, 19 of whom wrote in additional choices from the options given in the box next to the “other” option. These write-ins have been added to the totals. Several others wrote in issues or concerns that were not included among the options given. A detailed summary of the qualitative data provided in response to this question (and to question #7) is forthcoming.

Gender equity                                    23        (34.84%)

Academic program review                 20        (30.3%)

Shared governance                            20        (30.3%)

Administrative accountability              18        (27.27%)

Transparency in decision making        25        (37.87%)

Respect for faculty                             26        (39.39%)

Support for academic mission            16        (24.24%)

Institutional priorities                           17        (25.75%)

Results of second set of responses (n = 278; 46 skipped question):

In addition to the totals given below, 40 respondents wrote in issues or concerns that were not included among the options given. A detailed summary of the qualitative data provided in response to this question (and to question #7) is forthcoming.

Gender equity                                    135      (58.19%)

Academic program review                 121      (52.16%)

Shared governance                            152      (65.52%)

Administrative accountability              128      (55.17%)

Transparency in decision making       169      (72.84%)

Respect for faculty                             171      (73.71%)

Support for academic mission            111      (47.84%)

Institutional priorities                            120      (51.72%)

Other                                                   40        (17.24%)

 Question 6. (OPTIONAL QUESTION) Years of service at WMU?

Results of first set of responses (n = 80; 22 skipped question):

1-5 years:                   3

6-10 years:                 11

11-15 years:               17

16-20 years:               11

21-25 years:               7

26-30 years:               6

31-35 years:               2

36-40 years:               0

41-45 years:               0

46-50 years:               1

51 or more years:       0

other:                         0

 Results of second set of responses (n = 278; 97 skipped question):

1-5 years:                   15

6-10 years:                 27

11-15 years:               44

16-20 years:               43

21-25 years:               22

26-30 years:               8

31-35 years:               12

36-40 years:               6

41-45 years:               1

46-50 years:               2

51 or more years:       0

other:                          1 (comment: “many decades”)

Question 7. (OPTIONAL QUESTION) Please add any comments you would like to share.

First set of responses (n = 80): 24 participants included comments.

Second set of responses (n = 278): 64 participants included comments.

Detailed summary of qualitative responses is forthcoming.

 

Number of survey invitations sent:                             886

Number of faculty opted out of Survey Monkey         67

Number of possible participants:                                819