Poll of No Confidence?

• A faculty poll sent out on Friday afternoon may be attempting to take a vote of no confidence.

An anonymous comment to the theUA Defender blog said: "If you have looked at the online poll, one question specifically asks if you have confidence in the current administration's ability to lead this university forward. Vote No Confidence."

Other comments draw the process into question, asking whether the poll actually has any official power, how much of a percentage has to vote for no confidence in order to pass it, etc. At this time, it looks like the Faculty Senate is just putting out the feelers to see what the atmosphere really is. A few vocal members can always seem to be leading a charge that, in fact, has little backing. This way each individual gets one and only one response to the question.

The faculty can also go the route of providing a list of priorities or requests to the administration, such as they have on the site, i.e. no firings while the transition takes place (to avoid vengeful dismissals). From what we can tell, the Senate has not yet done this, at least in an official capacity. As powerful as blogs are, the administration can't be expected to respond to questions that have never been submitted directly to them.

• Renee Schafer Horton of the Tucson Citizen online wonders whether the central issue is really Provost Hay's personality and attitude toward the cuts she makes.

A lack of empathy on Hay's part is disappointing (keep in mind that as far as we know, no upper-administrator has taken any kind of pay cut in all this time). At the same time, we probably wouldn't care much about her personality if she weren't firing so many people. We know times are tough, but firing someone you can't afford to pay and firing someone who disagrees with your way of doing things are certainly not the same thing.

• The Wildcat reports on the Solidarity meeting that took place at Old Main on Friday.

Organizers have complained that the Wildcat's coverage was selective, choosing to focus on graduate students, when a variety of students, faculty and other university community members were present. Also, the Wildcat continues to spread the impression that graduate students are planning to walk out next week, when in fact, they are not (at least according to GPSC and the organizers of Friday's event.) If anyone has more info or would like a forum to post their statements, Sallygradstudent is always happy to oblige. You can put your name on it or post anonymously: sallygradstudent@gmail.com

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