SUNY ESF Preparing for a Vote of No Con­fi­dence in College President

Students, faculty and staff at SUNY ESF are coming together to make an important decision about their school's leadership. They're moving forward with a no confidence vote in their president. Alexa Green takes a deeper look at the process.

SYRACUSE N.Y. -- It was just two years ago when Quentin Wheeler took office as SUNY ESF president. Since then, though, a lot has happened and with frustrations boiling over, the group called Academic Governance -- consisting of students, faculty and staff -- is getting ready for a vote of no confidence in Wheeler. 

"The discussion has been going almost a year and half," said Tom Amidon, SUNY ESF professor and academic governance executive chair. "We actually did not have a process, so that made it very difficult to sort through can we do it, should we do it, how would we do it."

So the group began figuring out what their next step was. Earlier this month, the resolution was written and now there's one more meeting planned before the vote takes place.

"That will take a maximum two weeks, more likely 10 days, and then we have a counting of the votes, and that's not a secret thing, we'll invite observers, because we're not trying to decide the answer, we're just trying to figure out which one it is," Amidon said. 

The top concerns of the group are lack of trust, a failure to engage with the campus community and the overall direction the university is heading in, but not everyone in academic governance is unhappy with Wheeler's performance. 

"When it comes down to it, I think that he has addressed student concerns appropriately, not that there are no issues with administration, but at this time, I don't not have confidence in him," explained SUNY ESF undergraduate Student Association President Ben Taylor.

If the vote does move forward it doesn't necessarily mean President Wheeler is out, the decision ultimately lies in the hands of the board of trustees and the chancellor. 

Time Warner Cable News has reached out to Wheeler for comment, but haven't heard back yet. The vote is expected to be held sometime next month.