Lesley Faculty Pass Third No Confidence Vote Against President

Updated March 1, 2024, at 2:17 a.m.

Lesley University’s faculty assembly passed a vote of no confidence against the university’s president Janet Steinmayer at a Tuesday meeting, according to multiple professors in attendance. It was the third no-confidence vote against Steinmayer since she took office in 2019.

At least 70 percent of the 70 core faculty in attendance voted for the measure, which also expressed no confidence in Lesley’s board of trustees and interim Provost Deanna Yameen and called for both Yameen and Steinmayer to resign, according to a Thursday statement from Lesley’s Faculty Steering Committee.

“Faculty have deep concerns about the governance, about the lack of accountability, and about the fact that decisions seem to be made that we’re not part of,” said Lesley University Associate Professor Donna Halper, who was in attendance at the vote.

Halper is one of 24 faculty members who were laid off in October 2023 as part of a restructuring initiative to reduce expenses. Despite the termination, Halper was asked to teach through the spring.

While 30 core faculty members were originally identified for layoff, five faculty will remain at the university in other positions and one faculty member will have a revised contract.

Lesley University acknowledged the no confidence vote in a statement Wednesday afternoon.

“We are saddened that our institution-wide efforts to create the very best experience for our Lesley University students and community while keeping it financially viable for future generations has, for a third time, come under attack by some members of our faculty,” the university wrote in a statement.

“Since announcing those changes, many Lesley faculty members, leaders, and staff have been enthusiastically working hard on the plan, with many promising results,” the university added. “We urge all faculty members to help the university move forward, so it does not suffer the fate of a growing number of small colleges and universities nationwide.”

The layoffs affected around 15 percent of Lesley’s total core faculty and were accompanied by the announcement that the university would be cutting four academic programs: political science, sociology, global studies, and a graduate program in photography.

Lesley University has faced a more than 50 percent decline in student enrollment over the past 10 years. In April 2023, the Boston Globe reported that the university was facing a $10 million budget deficit due to declining enrollment and use of student housing.

The faculty’s first no-confidence vote against Steinmayer came in December 2021, only two years after she took office.

The faculty assembly’s release in the aftermath of the vote attributed it to “systemic issues” that “the president failed to address,” including mismanagement of student housing, finances, and general operations, as well as “the erosion of shared governance.”

In February 2023, the faculty issued a second vote of no-confidence against Steinmayer and issued their first vote of no-confidence against Lesley’s Board of Trustees. The assembly’s release stated that “decisions made by the university’s leadership have eroded the student experience and endangered the long-term viability of some academic programs.”

Before the Tuesday vote, faculty gave a presentation about the “misalignment of Lesley University’s resources and mission under Janet Steinmayer’s presidency” that included publicly available tax documents and financial statements from the university under Steinmayer’s tenure.

The presentation claimed that the share of the university’s budget spent on management increased by $6.2 million — a 36 percent rise from the 2019 fiscal year to the 2023 fiscal year — while spending on instruction, academic support, student support services, and fundraising all decreased.

The slides also show that Steinmayer’s salary has more than doubled during her tenure — from around $250,000 in the 2020 fiscal year to around $530,000 in the 2022 fiscal year — while the university’s operating revenue declined by 23 percent.

According to a Lesley University spokesperson, Steinmayer’s 2020 salary was half of the annual fee because she came into the role halfway through 2019.

The faculty assembly has not publicly released a statement confirming Tuesday’s no-confidence vote. Faculty assembly chair Michelle Pate did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.

Clarification: April 9, 2024

This article has been updated to clarify that Lesley University President Janet Steinmayer’s 2020 salary represented half of the annual fee because she assumed the presidency in July 2019.

Correction: February 28, 2024

A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that 25 faculty members were laid off in October 2023. In fact, according to Lesley, only 24 faculty have been laid off.

Correction: February 29, 2024

A previous version this article incorrectly stated that more than 100 faculty were in attendance at the February Faculty Assembly meeting. In fact, according to the Faculty Steering Committee, only 70 of 140 eligible core faculty members were in attendance.

—Staff writer Julian J. Giordano can be reached at julian.giordano@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @jjgiordano1 or on Threads @julianjgiordano.