From staff reports

Pensacola State College faculty members have voted no confidence in the leadership of college President Edward Meadows.

The staff cited a number of grievances including allegations that the school administration created a culture of "fear, intimidation and reprisal," practiced "cronyism" in hiring and appointment practices and made poor funding decisions that negatively impacted students.

Friday morning, the Pensacola State College Board of Trustees responded to the vote by issuing a unanimous proclamation of support for Meadows and his administration. Meadows expressed his disappointment with the vote, but ultimately characterized the faculty union's complaints as "propaganda" designed to influence stalled contract negotiations.

"I've been expecting a vote of no confidence ever since we were forced to declare an impasse in negotiations," he said. "It's a union tactic to pressure us into meeting demands that we simply do not have the budget for."

Faculty Association President Paige Anderson strongly objected to Meadows' assessment, saying that issues raised in the no confidence vote are unrelated to the issues under negotiation.

"It's frustrating that anytime we try to bring up serious issues, the administration says we're just trying to strengthen our bargaining stance," she said.

"Class sizes repeatedly get increased. Student activities have been cut, especially the ones that have to do with journalism. A lot of the funding decisions have to do with 'Let's renovate boardrooms and redecorate administrative offices' when we have failing infrastructure."

Anderson said that on Thursday, 125 of 133 participating full-time faculty members voted no confidence in Meadows and his administration. The college has 193 full-time faculty members.

The faculty and administration have been at odds for nearly two years over wages, the number of hours teachers must spend in classrooms and other concerns.

Anderson said the faculty union has spent the past year attempting to dissuade the faculty from voting no confidence, but they finally reached a point where they felt they had no other recourse.

"Nobody wants to come to a no confidence vote, but we feel we have exhausted every other way of working things out," she said.

Meadows said he is hopeful things can be settled equitably for both sides when they return to the negotiating table Dec. 1.

"It's important that the public know that I, the board and the college administration value our faculty and believe they are the best faculty anywhere. ... But the bottom line is we have to move on with contract negotiations and we will," he said.