Resolution Urging the Administration and the Board of Trustees to Engage in a Frank and Open Dialogue with the Faculty Regarding the Resignation of President Jeffrey Lehman

WHEREAS, The Faculty of the University has a deep and abiding interest in the welfare of Cornell, and takes very seriously its obligation to advise the Administration of the University on the conduct of the University’s business, and
WHEREAS, The Faculty cannot perform this function in a climate of secrecy, and
WHEREAS, The Faculty Senate has been deeply unsettled by the unanticipated and unexplained resignation of Professor Jeffrey Lehman from the Presidency of Cornell, and
WHEREAS, the Senate applauds Professor Lehman’s attempts to bridge the gulf between the administration and the faculty by engaging the faculty in substantive discourse through individual email exchanges, numerous meetings with college and departmental faculty and his call to engagement, and
WHEREAS, the abruptness of the resignation of Professor Lehman and the lack of any meaningful explanation for it have, to our knowledge, no precedent at Cornell or at other prestigious American universities and stand in sharp contrast to Professor Lehman’s attempt to engage the faculty in substantive discourse, and
WHEREAS, the Senate is distressed that faculty members were required to turn to the Cornell Sun, the Ithaca Journal or the Chronicle for Higher Education to learn any of the circumstances surrounding the resignation rather than to an official University source, and
WHEREAS, the Senate is deeply concerned that the non-specific generalities of the official explanation for the resignation are broad enough to mask a major shift in the traditional locus of decision making at Cornell from the President to the Board of Trustees,
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT the Senate strongly urges the Board of Trustees to find a way to engage in a frank and open dialogue with the faculty regarding (a) the nature of the “differences with the Board of Trustees regarding the strategy for realizing Cornell’s long-term vision”, and b) how such differences could have arisen between the Board and the candidate of their choice in so short a period of time, and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT the Senate requests the Dean of the Faculty and the Faculty Trustees to present this resolution personally to the leadership of the Board of Trustees and report back to the Senate at its next meeting.