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Pensacola State College faculty voted no confidence late last week in their president, Edward Meadows. The union and the administration are at an impasse in contract negotiations. The faculty cited five major reasons, including a culture of reprisal, cronyism, disregard for the terms of their contract, poor funding and attempting to prevent coverage of the labor dispute by the student newspaper. "This vote was necessary to bring faculty concerns to the Board of Trustees. Faculty have been discouraged from communicating with the board since Dr. Meadows has been president," one professor said in a statement released by the faculty union. The union said it was the first time in the college's history that faculty have taken a no confidence vote. According to the union, 133 of 193 full-time faculty took part in the vote. Of those, 125 voted no confidence in Meadows.
The college’s trustees remain behind Meadows. “The Board of Trustees of Pensacola State College has full confidence in President Meadows and the college administration,” Herb Woll, the board chairman, said in a statement released by the university.
In an interview, Meadows said he believes the college’s faculty are upset at his attempts to increase the teaching load for instructors at an affiliated adult high school the college operates. The college serves about 600 students. "Their propaganda machine did very well of painting a picture that is not factual," Meadows said. He also defended his approach to the student newspaper, saying he never forbade the paper from printing anything, although his administration declined to talk with the student newspaper about the labor dispute and had a college labor attorney send a letter to the union that said faculty would be violating the law if they spoke with the paper about their contract negotiations. That law has been ruled unconstitutional but remains on the books.
