Faculty Votes “No Confidence” In President
93.75% of the full-time members of Bermuda College Faculty Association — which includes Professors, Senior Lecturers, Lecturers and Faculty Tutors — have voted “no confidence” in the President of Bermuda College, Dr. Duranda Greene, according to a statement from the Association.
The Association said, “The full-time members of Bermuda College Faculty Association, which includes Professors, Senior Lecturers, Lecturers and Faculty Tutors undertook a secret ballot vote of no confidence in the President of Bermuda College.
“An overwhelming majority of the membership approved the vote with 93.75% of those voting in favour of the no confidence vote.
“The reasons supporting the decision include, but are not limited to, lack of leadership, diversion of resources away from the mission of the institution, a sense of entitlement of the President, lack of awareness of the realities of the classroom, failure to engage in meaningful communication, and failure to take responsibility for the dismal institutional climate. These results quantify Faculty’s grave concern regarding the leadership of the current President to meet the mission of the College.
“This is the first time in the history of the College that the Faculty has undertaken such a vote of no confidence in a sitting President. The Faculty hope that the results of the vote will send a clear message to the Board of Governors and the Ministry of Education that dialogue is required in order to ensure that the mission of Bermuda College is fulfilled.”
In response to the no confidence vote, Chair of the Bermuda College Board of Governor, Jill Husbands and College President, Dr. Duranda Greene said they “have been made aware of the concerns expressed in the media by the Bermuda College Faculty Association.”
The College said, “The grievances have been received with some surprise by the Chairman of the Board, who noted, “Dr. Greene has always put the interests of the College first.”
“Dr. Greene was also surprised by the move in that she met with the Faculty Association Executive as recently as Tuesday, April 28, and also with every faculty member throughout the week in their respective divisions. Again, no mention of the listed grievances was made at any of the meetings.
“Nevertheless, the College is committed to its core values, which includes a commitment to all employees. In that regard, opportunities for full and frank dialogue will continue to be sought to address the stated grievances with those disaffected.
“However, the core mission of Bermuda College is and always will be its students, who have just recently finished writing final exams, with the College now focused on preparing for its Commencement exercises next Thursday, May 14. The College commends faculty for having correctly prioritised our students and their success, despite their disenchantment.
“The Board of Governors, which includes a Faculty Association representative, is fully committed to ensuring that the College fulfils its mission and assures the parties concerned that every effort will be made to effect a resolution.”
Somebody’s missing something here….if the Board chair and the President are so out of touch…maybe it’s time to go….
” a sense of entitlement of the President”
Leadership = serving people . Staying at the bottom of the triangle
Lets get the same thing going for this Government.
Except Greene was a political appointment of the previous government and like their hand picked corporation of Hamilton team was and is a complete failure.
As soon as you have the support.go for it.
Good luck.
Statistics can be made to show anything.
To be more specific, the report needs to include at least the following:
How many full time faculty are employed at the Bermuda College
How many of the full time faculty participated in the vote
In the absence of the requested information, it is possible that a minority of faculty participated in the vote.
It says in the article “93.75% of the full-time members of Bermuda College Faculty Association — which includes Professors, Senior Lecturers, Lecturers and Faculty Tutors — have voted “no confidence” in the President of Bermuda College.”
Vote for Me-
The Bermuda College website states that there are 39 Faculty and
15 Adjunct Lecturers (“About Us” tab). The Bermuda College Faculty Association statement says that an “overwhelming majority” of members voted, and that 93.75% of votes cast were in favor of the no confidence motion.
Given the precision of the 93.75% number, and the number of faculty and adjunct lecturers, it could well be that of 54 Association members, 48 voted. Among those 48 members, 45 voted in favor of the motion.
That would create the 93.75% vote (45/48) and support the “overwhelming majority” statement (48/54, or 88.9%).
It seems very unlikely that a minority of the faculty participated in the vote.
EW
All
I am thankful for my start at Bda College.
Without the information I requested, the article could be true if 16, 32, 48 or 64 people voted. With those numbers, 15, 30, 45 or 60 would have to vote in favour to give the 93.75 result.
However if only 16 voted, it would not represent a majority of the faculty. as I said, without full information, the story is less than complete.
I also agree with some of the comments. The value of the Bda College to the Bermuda community has grown in leaps and bounds in the last 5 to 10 years.
“Without the information I requested, the article could be true if 16, 32, 48 or 64 people voted. With those numbers, 15, 30, 45 or 60 would have to vote in favour to give the 93.75 result.”
Vote for Me-
That is true for the 93.75 number. But if there are 54 (39 faculty plus 15 lecturers) members of the BCFA, then 16 and 32 voters does not constitute an overwhelming majority. And 60 would constitute Chicago politics.
The “overwhelming majority” phrase in the statement does not refer to the 93.75%. It refers to the number of voters, regardless of the direction of their vote.
EW
First of all lets get the facts straight, this is about the BC faculty and not about Dr. Green or leadership. Bermuda College, and the Bermuda government run schools across the board, are far move advanced and competitive today than they where just 15 years ago. You can earn a full degree in accounting, business, and many other disciplines at the Bermuda college with out leaving Bermuda and the degree is issued by one Canada’s great universities. You can transfer to more universities today from Bermuda college that you could ever do in the past. Dr. Green and the BOG has pushed these developments along. Oh…wait… BC now credited by the same body that accredits Boston College, and Harvard, …hmm
Disgruntled lecturers at Bermuda complaining to the media about so called grievances that they have never aired to the executive or the board, despite the fact that they have a permanent seat on the board! Too busy teaching their 4 classes a week I guess, and driving taxi part time!
Many, many people in Bermuda work harder than a BC lecturer!! Oh wait…..I smell money.
A wonderful opportunity for Dr. Greene to look at the organizational climate of BC. It is a micro managed institution with no opportunity for open and frank discussion. Fears of retribution permeates the atmosphere. BC should be all about a quality education for the students and faculty can only operate in an environment where they are valued. I wonder how many times the Board has met with faculty or visited students. It appears there is a total disconnect. Surely if you teach business management to the potential leaders in these industries in the future, you should operate as a role model in these fields . In other words, have a good organizational climate and be able to have the books audited yearly.
Why would faculty have meetings with Dr. Greene and not mention these grievances? Why go to the media first? What an ambush, just before commencement.
When is Cedarbridge vote?
The faculty are missing something…regular attendance and input at Bermuda College Board meetings where they have a permanent seat. The Bermuda college has had more critical successes and acheivments in the last 7 years than it had in the 30 years prior to that, including being accredited by the New England Assoc. that accredits Harvard and Yale and having 20 or so people graduate each year with full bachelor degrees!!! All of these acheivments took place under Dr. Greens Leadership. Why have a seat on the board if you are not going to attend, and when you do attend you don’t contribute in substantive ways??
Running to the press, before you even mention that you have a problem to the board and the executive, is so juvenile.
Axelrod your posts definitely read like you are close to the situation and may even be on or close to someone who is on the board. It is shameful because you or your informant should be working to figure out why almost ALL of the full-time faculty have a grievance instead of defending the President on this news thread. Yes BC has made tremendous strides however where would it be w/o the faculty? 94% well educated, hard-working and very talented people voted no confidence…
The faculty and staff have been unhappy and disgruntled for the past few years. They have tried to reach out to the executive but with little response. Had the board asked why the college has not a permanent VP in the past few years? When the college gets one within a year they have left. There were and are signs but the board has not taken note.
It’s a sad situation. But getting rid of management is not the first solution. Are the faculty just pointing the blame for their problems onto management? I don’t work there so I don’t know. But i do notice that people like to play the blame game and think they are entitled instead of working through challenges. If they are so unhappy, they could have at least mentioned it when they met with Dr Green as well. Seems fishy.
As a former employee of the college, Dr. Greene is lacking the skills to take Bermuda college forward into the new era of post secondary education. Running a physical education institution in this day and age requires a leader that has vision, thinking outside the box, innovations, etc.
“Running a physical education institution….” What is that? “…requires a leader that has vision, thinking outside of the box, innovations, etc.” What is wrong with you? Slow? Illiterate? Have you followed the progress of the college since 2010? All of your comments are meaningless cliches! Dr. Green has shown the greatest of attribute of a good leader…COURAGE. She has had to put up with incompetent and sometimes lazy staff who threaten the college’s mission.
Axelord,
You talk about courage of Dr Greene, but Former Employee has some valid concerns. Courage is needed to listen to staff and openly communicate with them. Courage would have employee’s idea given merit and good employees awarded for thinking outside the box. As it stands that aspect of courage is lacking. Given that the Faculty Association chose this method to communicate long-standing issues should indicate whom has more courage.
I think their concerns should be looked into directly by the Board without Dr Greene’s oversight and input.
The President is unaware of the issues and concerns of Faculty? Here in lies the problem. If nothing else there a total disconnect and that shows a lack of leadership. In Dr. Greene’s statement explaining she refers to meetings of this week by stating “no mention of the listed grievances”. Grievances that lead to a vote of no confidence don’t just develop in a week, clearly she hasn’t be listening for a very long time.
A friend of mine works there full time.
S*** flows downhill.
When does CBA faculty vote? I need to cast my ballot in that election
Dr. Green was hand picked under the previous Government. She was protected for years by PLP appointed Board who would not entertain any complaints against iDr. Greene. Several dedicated and skilled persons were terminated by Dr. Green over the years. It became something of a morbid joke to see who would be the next person executed under her rein of terror. To speak out was at one’s own peril. Eventually all of her cronies and minions has eventually retired or no longer withthe College Boatd and the Faculty and staff is finally feeling safe to express their dissatisfaction with her administration…