OIT Faculty vote 'no confidence' in Oregon Tech President
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The following is a press release from the Oregon Tech Faculty Senate.
KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. - Faculty members at the Oregon Institute of Technology have voted overwhelmingly that they no longer have confidence in the leadership of President Nagi Naganathan. Faculty Senate President Don McDonnell announced the results at a regularly scheduled meeting of the Senate on April 6.
The vote conducted last week came after a recent report by the Faculty Senate’s Executive Committee raised concerns about Naganathan’s leadership.
McDonnell said 92 percent of Oregon Tech faculty members voted on the question of their confidence in President Naganathan, and of those who voted, 92% did not have confidence in his leadership. He said the results of the vote would be forwarded to the Oregon Tech Board of Trustees, and that he would be making a presentation to the board on April 8, 2021, explaining the reasons for the faculty action and requesting the immediate removal of Dr. Naganathan as president.
“The Faculty Senate took action based on the complaints of a large number of faculty over the last few months,” McDonnell said. “Those complaints were documented in the report of the Faculty Senate Executive Committee.”
A copy of the report is available on the Senate’s webpage.
McDonnell provided a number of comments submitted to him by faculty who participated in the vote. These comments included the following:
“This has been a hard decision that I took seriously.”
“While I appreciate Dr. Nagi's vision for Oregon Tech, he is not an effective leader.”
“This is an unfortunate but necessary step.”
McDonnell also said numerous faculty members, staff, and lower level administrators had expressed fear of retaliation by Naganathan and his senior administrators.
“This fear is a direct result of our president’s management methods and the climate he has created on campus,” McDonnell said.
Previous attempts to resolve concerns about Naganathan were fruitless, said Faculty Senate Vice-President Dr. Christopher Syrnyk.
“We have attempted in various forums and over multiple years to communicate our faculty's concerns with his leadership style to Dr. Naganathan,” Syrnyk said. “However, the results provide a statistically clear statement of the faculty’s position: 92 percent of faculty have expressed their lack of confidence in the president.”
Dr. Mark Clark, a member of the Faculty Senate Executive Committee, said public comments made by Naganathan made matters worse.
“He has said that faculty dissatisfaction is overstated, and that any visible discontent is the result of agitation by a small number of individuals,” Clark said. “I think this vote is a definitive refutation of his position – he has clearly alienated the vast majority of faculty members and should be removed from his position.”