In an unprecedented move, faculty leaders earlier this week
voted out their top representative.
Dissatisfied with UC Academic Senate Chair Clifford
Brunk’s performance, the Academic Senate, which represents
faculty at all University of California campuses, voted Monday to
remove Brunk as chair.
Concerns over Brunk’s treatment of senate employees led
senate members to question his leadership qualities. Last month,
the Academic Council, the senate’s executive wing, issued a
vote of no confidence in Brunk, at which time the senate scheduled
a special meeting for March 13 to decide Brunk’s fate.
Monday’s vote included both a new vote of no confidence
and a resolution to remove Brunk.
This action marks the first time a senate chair has been removed
from office.
“It is with deep regret that the Academic Council voted to
initiate action to remove Clifford Brunk as chair of the
system-wide Academic Senate,” said Alice Agogino, UC Berkeley
Academic Senate chair, in a statement sent to members of UC
Berkeley’s faculty.
“This is unprecedented in the history of the Academic
Senate at the University of California and was decided after much
deliberation, due diligence and in view of compelling evidence that
immediate action was absolutely necessary,” she said.
Some senate members have suggested that Brunk’s removal
was spurred by his handling of the UC executive-compensation
investigations. Some faculty members have expressed concern over
Brunk’s perceived failure to take a hard-line stance on the
controversial compensation issue.
This action comes at a particularly busy time for the senate, as
the UC Board of Regents meets on campus this week to discuss, among
other items, executive compensation. In today’s meeting, the
regents plan to discuss reforms to the terms of separation for UC
employees.
Brunk, a UCLA biology professor, declined to speak on the record
about his removal, but he released a statement expressing his
dissatisfaction with the decision.
“Nothing in my behavior or representation of the UC Senate
(or) faculty warrants my removal from office,” Brunk said in
the statement. “I strongly disagree with the action of the
assembly and the procedures they employed to remove me.”
In a statement released last week to senate members, Brunk
defended his ability to represent faculty views, saying the
complexity of the issues he has had to deal with make it impossible
to please all faculty members.
Consistent with senate bylaws, UC Davis law Professor John
Oakley, senate vice chair, will step into the role of chair while
UC Santa Barbara education Professor Michael Brown will take over
as vice chair.
Neither Oakley nor Brown could be reached for comment.