A key agenda item at Mercer’s first faculty union meeting of the year was to discuss the possibility of holding a vote of no confidence in Mercer’s president Dr. Jianping Wang. This means our faculty members may take an official vote to register that they no longer support the ability of our president to run the college.
Several other local colleges have gone through this in recent years, most notably Essex County College, Bergen County College and William Paterson. In all of those cases the president was gone within three years.
Talk of a vote of no confidence is not new at Mercer. The faculty came right up to the brink last November, ultimately opting, as we reported in The VOICE, to hold off and work with the Board of Trustees to try to address the difficulties they say they were having with the president.
Professor of Sociology, Dr. Edward Avery-Natale, who attended the meeting told the VOICE, “I know people have a lot of anger towards the President.” When asked about the root of that anger Avery-Natale cited desire for a contract and also said “I think a lot of people have mistrust of the president.” He added that there is a perception “that she does not always present accurate statements.”
The president says she only learned about the current talk of a vote of no confidence when asked about it by the VOICE. She said “I didn’t hear this anywhere else.”
She added, “I really appreciate the faculty” and said that she has a “great relationship” with them but acknowledges that “there’s always something we need to work on.”
Dr. Wang said: “They don’t feel as financially supported as they expect to be, which I agree.” She went on to explain that budgetary concerns were a roadblock.
Due to the complexity of the ongoing contract negotiation, The VOICE is not in a position to side with the President or the faculty union. However it is clear that there are long standing tensions between the two sides, and while we would like to think this tension has not become a source of distraction for professors or the President, we can’t be sure.
Probably most of our peers don’t know anything about it and don’t care, but we are all affected
The fact that within approximately a year there have been two serious discussions of a vote of no confidence in the president–and that there has been talk of it since 2017 which the VOICE reported in April of that year–combined with the fact that there has been high turnover within administrative positions, gives the appearance to students and the public that fundamental conflicts are lingering, unaddressed for years.
Dr. Wang told the VOICE “we want to have a harmonious community” but all parties involved should keep in mind this kind of tension between her and the faculty is not harmonious.
Mercer students look to faculty, staff, and the administration for guidance as we are preparing to start our careers. For this battle to persist so long without redress sets a poor example of conflict resolution.
We, the Editorial Board of The VOICE, ask the college leadership to find a way to resolve the problems in a timely and equitable manner.
