E. GORDON GEE (WVU Photo/Jennifer Shephard)
CHARLESTON – E. Gordon Gee, the president of West Virginia University, did not survive a second attempt at a no confidence vote, with a majority of full-time faculty voting Wednesday against Gee’s leadership.
Nearly 900 members of WVU’s University Assembly – representing full-time facility on WVU’s campuses in Morgantown, Potomac State University in Keyser, and WVU Tech in Beckley – met in person and remotely for Wednesday’s meeting. Once the vote was tallied, 797 voted for the no confidence resolution in Gee, while 100 voted against the resolution.
The WVU Faculty Senate received a petition last week seeking to call a meeting of the University Assembly to consider a vote of no confidence in Gee’s leadership. The University Assembly, which traditionally meets once per year, includes all full-time faculty and representatives of retired faculty. Special meetings of the University Assembly can be called if the Faculty Senate Office receives a petition with signatures from 5% of full-time faculty.
Reasons cited by the proposed resolution for the no confidence vote include Gee’s 2014 and subsequent unmet goals of increasing student enrollment to 40,000 by 2020, his handling of WVU’s budget that has a $45 million hole this year that could grow to $75 million by fiscal year 2028, and academic transformation review that recommended in August the discontinuation of 32 majors and the elimination of 150 faculty positions.