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A group of high-profile Dominican sisters affiliated with Mount Saint Mary College in Newburgh, N.Y., is breaking with the institution’s Board of Trustees to back a faculty vote of no confidence in the board chair, Albert Gruner. The sisters’ move was promoted by the board’s unanimous vote over the weekend expressing confidence in Gruner. That’s despite faculty concerns that he’d confronted a faculty member over what the professor said about the college on social media, and his initial reaction to a now former trustee’s shared Twitter link to a video faculty members said was anti-Semitic, among other concerns about shared governance.
“The board was deeply saddened and profoundly disturbed by the resolution and its allegations,” the body said in a resolution regarding the vote of no confidence. “After a thorough discussion, the board determined that the allegations were false and unfounded.” The board also affirmed its commitment to shared governance.
In a response to that resolution, the Dominican sisters said the present “crisis at [the college] demanded bold action and we were in support of the resolution of the faculty for Gruner to step down from the board. He has become the focal point of the crisis and it could only have benefited the college and its mission of education if new leadership began as soon as possible. We are profoundly disturbed that this was not the will of the board.” Signatories to the statement were Sister Ann Sakac, president emerita, who led the college for 30 years; Sister Joann Boneski, board member emerita; and three professors emerita: Sisters Leona DeBoer, Pat Sullivan and Catherine Walsh.
