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Saturday, Nov. 21, 2009

Cal State Stanislaus faculty votes 91 percent no confidence in President Shirvani

TURLOCK -- Faculty at California State University, Stanislaus, overwhelmingly supported a no-confidence vote against President Ham Shirvani.

Results of the weeklong voting were released Friday -- 91 percent voted no confidence in Shirvani's performance.

About 90 percent of the 300 eligible voters cast ballots. Members include professors, coaches, librarians and academic administrators.

The turnout was not surprising, said Lynn John-son, a professor of accounting and past speaker of the Academic Senate.

"Unfortunately, the timing of this decision may cause those outside of the university to assume it's a reaction to budgetary pressures or the decision to end winter term. In fact, our lack of confidence in Shirvani has been discussed among the faculty since at least 2007," she said.

Employees have grown frustrated with what they call financial mismanagement and a continuing resistance to communicating with the public about how tax dollars are being spent, said Steve Filling, accounting professor and chair of the Academic Senate.

Union leaders have been denied access to information, including certain budget discussions, Filling said.

"There's this idea that if they don't tell people anything, no one can argue with them," he said.

Shirvani wasn't available for comment, but Vice President Russ Giambelluca said staff and public have information on the budget.

He said Shirvani is not surprised to see the faculty's anxiety after "two full years of horrendous budget cuts."

"We all have to focus on moving forward," said Giambelluca, head of business and finance.

Stanislaus' faculty officials will report the vote to the CSU system chancellor and board of trustees as well as the state Legislature, but the action has no direct impact on Shirvani's employment.

"I can't imagine a case where (the chancellor) would fire him because of this vote," Filling said. "But (Shirvani) claims that our complaints are coming from a few disgruntled faculty. This is a vote of everyone. It's our attempt to say that in a way he couldn't ignore."

Cal State Stanislaus has campuses in Turlock and Stockton, and operates the Tri-College Center as a partnership with UC Merced and Merced College.