The president of the Mercer’s Faculty Association, Communication Professor Alvyn Haywood, was the first to take the podium during the public comment portion of the College’s Board of Trustees meeting on Thursday, April 18, at the JKC campus, to begin to explain to the Board the reasons for the faculty vote of no confidence that was made on April 11.
“Our president has turned herself into a permanent liability for the college—a liability that will hang like a millstone around the neck of the Board and the college until the day the president resigns or is fired,” Professor Haywood said.
The Faculty Association passed the vote of no confidence in a meeting on Thursday, April 11. Eighty-five faculty members voted, three abstained and the remaining 82 voted no confidence.
As noted in a VOICE online article of April 12, a no-confidence vote has no direct consequence in the day-to-day operations of the college, but it does put pressure on the college’s Board of Trustees to address issues related to the president’s performance and her contract.
Professor Haywood explained before the meeting: “[Our] request is, first of all, they listen to what it is we have been experiencing and take into careful consideration what [Dr. Wang] has to say, what we have to say. They will then have to very seriously do some investigating, and arrive at a conclusion that will be beneficial to the wellbeing and welfare of the college.”
The April 11 vote by the faculty was only the second such vote in the 50+ year history of the college since its founding in 1967. The last Mercer faculty vote of no confidence was against then-president John P. Hanley in 1989. Hanley retired from the College in 1992.
Laureen Meyer, the former executive assistant to Dr. J. Brandon Shaw, Mercer’s Vice President of Academic Affairs–who was hired in the spring of 2018, and whose contract was not renewed for fall of 2019–said in an interview with The VOICE, “If you look at what is happening at Mercer right now, it mimics what is happening on the national stage. The way the colleges are supposed to operate is you have a series of checks and balances, and it’s called shared governance, and the faculty works with the board who works with the president.”
She went on to compare the situation to national politics saying, “What is happening is just like [President] Trump shutting down the Congress. President Wang is shutting down the faculty union, and the Board of Trustees, who are like the Supreme Court, are going to have to take a side.”
When Board Chair Mark Matzen opened the public comment portion of the monthly Board meeting, attended by Dr. Wang in her official function as Board Secretary, 19 members of the Mercer faculty and the college community took the microphone one by one and presented their views regarding the president. Speakers were each given three minutes with the exception of the union presidents, Alvyn Haywood and Beth Knight, who got six.
The list of faculty grievances included: High turnover rate in leadership, including Vice Presidents and Academic Deans, leading to a loss of institutional memory and creating confusion regarding policies and procedures.
Another issue was the dismantling of the IT department. And “[Spending] more than $2 million to hire an external company to handle IT functions under the pretense of better service and savings to the college.” The company in question is Ellucian.
During his time at the podium during the Board meeting, Dr. Dylan Wolfe, a Communication professor, asked, “Why has Ellucian’s contract been extended?”
Dr. Ed Carmien, a professor of English followed up on this during his remarks saying, “When you look at [Ellucian’s] promotional materials, [Dr.Wang] is in them, a lot, and she has made appearances in the past at Ellucian conferences, and has been a speaker at these conferences.”
He continued, “It just gives an unsettling impression that our institutional decisions to spend a lot of our resources on Ellucian products…appear to benefit to some degree, Ellucian. We are not making the claim that there is a conflict of interest, we are just saying, gosh, it looks bad.”
Interviewed in the days after the Board meeting, Dr. Wang responded to the Ellucian issue saying, “I don’t see why, if you are a customer, like if you have your fence repaired, and the contractor said, ‘Did I do a good job, and if I did a good job would you be my reference?’ So, as far as the college is concerned, we did move successfully to the cloud, so I talk about the impact of [Ellucian] on our students’ learning.”
However, the Code of Ethics for Mercer Employees states, “No officer or employee shall undertake any employment or engage in any business, transaction, service, or professional activity, whether compensated or not, which might reasonably be expected to impair his/her objectivity or independence of judgment in the exercise of her/his official duties.”
Dr. Heather Jennings, Professor of Psychology, raised another issue of faculty concern, a limitation of contact between faculty and board members. She said, “The board is supposed to act in the public interest, including students, staff, faculty and administration. How are you even supposed to do this when we have gag order of sorts implemented in OMB100?”
The faculty grievance, as presented by Jennings, was specifically that President Wang had created policies to prevent the Board of Trustees “from exercising due oversight. Specifically, the President implemented a Code of Ethics for Board of Trustees members blocking communication with any college employee other than herself.”
Dr. Wang responded in a later interview saying, “You read for yourself if there is or there isn’t a gag order. There isn’t. . . . and by the way, it’s a Board policy. It’s that I didn’t dictate it. It’s the policy of the board. It’s what you call Board bylaws.”
Matzen affirmed Wang’s position, saying in an interview, “It is a board-driven process, the president does not drive the bylaws of the Board of Trustees.”
The clause that Jennings seemed to be referring to is letter F in OMB100, “Trustees should strive to support the college staff and never criticize the College President, any staff or fellow Trustees in public. If a trustee is contacted by College Staff for any reason, the Trustee should listen respectfully. However the trustee should redirect the staff to the appropriate administrator or report that conversation to the Chair and/or College President.”
Another grievance that was read by faculty was, “[Dr.Wang] failed to retain key leaders such as Vice President of Academic Affairs and Director of Financial Aid. Since her appointment in 2015, MCCC has had four different Vice Presidents of Academic Affairs. Such turnover prohibits the achievement of long-term strategic goals and creates institutional confusion.”
As stated in a previous VOICE article, “In 2015, a series of rapid changes in Mercer’s upper administration took place starting with a new President, Dr. Jianping Wang, and a new Vice President, Dr. Chang. There were also new employees in two of the three dean positions. Since then the college has also seen the Director of Human Resources, the Chief Business and Financial Officer and the Registrar all either retire or move on to other jobs.”
Mercer will be on its sixth Vice President of Academic Affairs in fewer than six years as Dr. J Brandon Shaw’s contract was abruptly not renewed.
Meyer, Dr. Shaw’s executive assistant, explained why she believed Dr. Shaw’s contract was not renewed and that it had to do with a hiring decision for an open provost position on the college’s JKC Trenton campus. A search committee was convened and recommended one candidate, and Dr. Shaw agreed with their recommendation, but Dr. Wang selected a different candidate.
Meyer said, “[Dr.Shaw] had twice recommended someone for the [position of] dean of JKC. Both times, it is my understanding–I wasn’t in the room, it’s just my understanding–Dr. Wang would say she would not accept his recommendation, and that she wanted him to recommend someone else.”
Meyer continued, “It is also my understanding that Dr. Shaw said, that ‘as the president of the college, I will support you, but you can’t ask me to say that this is my recommendation, because it wasn’t my recommendation.’”
During the public comments, Dr. Wolfe had raised the same issue asking, “Regarding search committees, why do we have them if the president has the authority to override the search recommendations? We are in essence discrediting the process…”
When asked about Meyer’s comment, Dr. Wang responded, “I really, once again, want to say I don’t want to comment [on] personnel things in public. I don’t think it’s accurate. It’s something really unfair because one side can talk and the other side cannot and it creates an appearance as if you have something to hide.”
Meyer said, “This is my opinion. It wasn’t as though Dr. Shaw was saying, ‘No, I’m not gonna do that. I am going to completely disregard your directive,’ but what he was saying was, ‘Let’s be truthful here, this is not my decision but I will support you.’ He wanted her to own up that this was her decision, not his.”
Ultimately Meyer resigned her position, citing ethical conflicts.
Dr. Wang stated, “In truth, I want to be professional about it, I really shouldn’t be talking about professional matters in public. I only want to say the facts laid there are not accurate.”
Dr. Shaw was unavailable for comment on these issues as of press deadline.
During Dr. Wang’s tenure, graduation rates have gone up. Mercer is distributing more scholarship money than ever, having over $600,000 available to students, and the endowment has grown from $8 million to $11 million. Board Chair Matzen noted these accomplishments at the April 18 meeting, after the public comment period ended.
Asked about the events of the Board meeting, Dr. Wang said, “I believe we have a very passionate, opinionated faculty, with strong opinions about a lot of things, and I respect their opinions, but as all of you know, I have a very open door policy, and every week I hold one hour open office hours, and many of you have taken advantage of it. I want to invite faculty to come in, as I said before.”
Matzen told The VOICE directly after the meeting, “We have as a board, confidence in the president. She has done some amazing things, moved us in a strong direction, financially and academically, both on the budget side and on the Foundation side. Having said that, anytime you hear of things that are issues, and especially when you hear from this many…it might make you look at different things…it brings some things to the board that we will definitely discuss.”
Correction: An earlier version of this article indicated that VPAA J. Brandon Shaw was hired in fall of 2018, he was hired in spring of 2018.
Update: Full copy of downloadable pdf of faculty statements of no confidence has been added as of 2:15pm, April, 26.
NOTE: Jim Franklin, Professor Emeritus of English and Journalism, served as guest media adviser for this article. VOICE media advisers, Professor Matthew Kochis and Professor Holly Johnson, recused from advising on this article because of their conflict of interest as members of the MCCC faculty union.
