became more limited. Now, the President meets once per quarter in a joint meeting with faculty leaders from Senate, United Faculty of Central (UFC), and Academic Department Chairs Organization (ADCO). The FSEC recognizes that some of these changes may have been made in response to direction from the Board of Trustees. Regardless of the origin of the decisions, the cumulative effect has been a reduction in routine, direct avenues for faculty to engage with the President. The FSEC notes that the 2025 Shared Governance document 34 emphasizes the importance of establishing open and regular channels of communication to support clear decision-making processes. In this context, the changes described above highlight questions about how faculty-administration communication can be maintained in ways that align with shared governance principles.
FSEC Clarification on justification point V (page 7 of document)
• Petition Language: Faculty have attempted to raise these concerns with President Wohlpart through established channels, including shared governance bodies and faculty leadership, but meaningful engagement has not been possible. FSEC Clarification: Across three meetings between the Senate Chairs and President Wohlpart during Summer 2025, the Chairs attempted to communicate their concerns about the Faculty Code rewrite proposal. These concerns were further communicated with the Provost during a meeting on September 26, 2025. Despite many opportunities to collaborate within the established governance processes (i.e. through the Senate FSEC and the BFCC), the President brought together faculty leaders on January 9, 2026 to inform them that the Faculty Code would be rewritten using a committee of administrators and faculty, outside of the established processes. 35
FSEC Clarification on justification point V (page 7 of document)
• Petition Language: As a result, faculty are discouraged from offering candid feedback or raising concerns about institutional decisions. EC Clarification: In the FSEC’s experience, we have attempted to provide candid feedback to the President on many occasions, and we agree our feedback is often ignored (e.g., in the Faculty Code re-write conversations over the Summer). An additional example related to communication occurred in connection with the open meeting announced for January 23, 2026. In a January 20 email to faculty, 36 the President invited participants to bring “solutions and suggestions for how we can improve communication and collaboration in similar situations going forward.” At the beginning of the January 23 meeting, participation guidelines were shared
34 See 2025 Shared Governance document 35 See January 14, 2026 Faculty Senate draft meeting minutes (chair report) 36 See Email from President on January 20, 2026
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