Professors Threaten No-Confidence Vote Against President of Oakland U.

Faculty unrest continues to roil Oakland University. Professors staged a weeklong strike there early this fall, and won concessions from the university. Now a group of senior faculty members are pushing for a no-confidence vote against the institution’s president, Gary D. Russi.

A “bill of particulars” from the group says Mr. Russi does not support shared governance and has made it difficult for professors to contact the university’s Board of Trustees, and charges that the president is “increasingly isolated and distant from campus life.”

Shea Howell, a professor of communication who is part of the dissatisfied group, wrote in an e-mail message that the plan is for a vote to take place by Thanksgiving. She also said that Mr. Russi had agreed to participate in an open discussion with faculty members, but a date for that meeting has not yet been set.

In the last week or so, the university has issued two news releases in which members of the Board of Trustees express confidence in Mr. Russi’s leadership. He became president at Oakland in 1996, and is under a contract that ends in 2014.