ELLENSBURG -- The Central Washington University faculty will use a secret ballot to vote online for its "vote of no confidence" against President Jim Wohlpart.
Voting was scheduled through Wednesday using anonymous paper ballots and mail-in ballots.
Preliminary results of the vote will be shared with the CWU Board of Trustees' Academic Affairs Committee on Thursday.
The CWU Board of Trustees will hold its quarterly meeting Thursday and Friday, Feb. 19-20, in Ellensburg.
Details of the process for the "vote of no confidence" were given to the Board of Trustees in a quarterly update memo sent last week from the Faculty Senate Executive Committee.
The Faculty Senate voted Feb. 4 to move forward with a faculty-wide vote. The decision to hold the vote was passed with 44 in favor, two against, and two abstentions.
"It was clear from the Senate discussion as well as the submitted materials that this vote reflects concerns about leadership and process and does not represent a lack of commitment to CWU, its students, or its mission," the Faculty Senate Executive Committee wrote in the memo.
The decision to have a "vote of no confidence" in Wohlpart was prompted by a petition to the Faculty Senate Executive Committee on Jan. 20.
The petition alleged that Wohlpart had undermined the Faculty Senate's role and had made a series of decisions that eroded the participation of the faculty in shared governance of the university.
All eligible faculty will take part in the vote. The committee said faculty who do not vote online can submit paper ballots at a polling booth or mail in their ballots.
The committee said official results will be shared with the university community by Feb. 25.
It its memo, the committee also presented its "hope for the future."
"Although this is a challenging time for the institution, we are eager to rebuild relationships between faculty and administration to foster genuine collaboration and shared governance," the memo said.
A formal "vote of no confidence" is a symbolic move and will not remove Wohlpart from his position as university president. Wohlpart's employment is based on a contract approved by the CWU Board of Trustees.
The two-day, quarterly board meeting that starts Feb. 19 will begin with a closed-door executive session. The board will "review the performance of a public employee," according to the agenda. The board meeting will open to the public at 1:15 p.m. Thursday in the Moehring Event Center. A public comment session will be followed by the president's report.
A second executive session will start the second day of the quarterly meeting. Topics include the review of the performance of a public employee, as well as discussions with legal counsel about litigation or potential litigation.
In the petition for the vote, the petition said: "President Wohlpart has failed to carry out the Board of Trustees' directive to 'elevate' shared governance and work collaboratively with faculty. This failure erodes faculty trust and poses an existential threat to the university."
Several letters of support for Wohlpart were submitted to the board earlier this week.
One came from the leadership team of the Finance & Administration division at the university. It expressed "strong confidence in President Wohlpart's leadership of Central Washington University."
Jason Jones, executive director of institutional effectiveness, research, and planning at Central Washington University, wrote that he had been with Wohlpart "in high-stakes settings that reveal character in ways that routine interactions do not."
"I have been in the room with him during executive meetings with senior officials from the Governor's office and with state legislators, witnessing consequential debates about performance funding mechanisms that carry massive implications for CWU and for higher education in Washington state. In those rooms, Jim was impressively articulate, deeply prepared, and displayed a presence that commanded attention from the most senior decision-makers in the state," he wrote.