NEIU Faculty Senate unanimously passed motions to hand votes of confidence or no confidence to the Faculty Assembly on President Gloria J. Gibson and the Board of Trustees in an Oct. 11, 2022 meeting.

These were not confidence votes in themselves. The Faculty Assembly as a whole will now vote on their confidence in President Gibson’s job and the Board on Oct. 27, 2022 just two days after Gibson’s State of the University address.

These votes are not legally binding, but it is a significant symbol for the Board and the President, if the faculty publicly states that they have no confidence in their ability to administer the university. The last time a vote of confidence or no confidence took place at NEIU was in 2015.

The Faculty Senate Chair had great concern about the university’s budget related issues and statistics that our sister schools, including Northern Illinois University, University of Illinois Chicago, and Central Illinois University all have steadily increasing enrollment while NEIU’s enrollment has been declining.

Notably, there are a number of positions unfilled on the Faculty Senate, including the non-voting Student Government Association representative, and the faculty representative for Student Affairs. Increased interaction between students and faculty could only be beneficial to the running of our university.