When Purdue President Beering survived a faculty push for a no-confidence vote
Four decades before this week’s University Senate vote of no confidence for Provost Patrick Wolfe, Steven Beering barely avoided a similar fate as Purdue president. A look at the archives.
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WHEN PRESIDENT BEERING SURVIVED A PURDUE FACULTY PUSH FOR A NO-CONFIDENCE VOTE
As hushed as it’s been since this week’s no confidence vote leveled against Purdue Provost Patrick Wolfe by the University Senate – one generating 74% of the faculty-led body to call him out for a series of accusations about heavy-handed decisions about hiring, faculty affairs and overall communication with the campus – the word “unprecedented” keeps popping up in back channel, off-the-record conversations around the West Lafayette campus.
Four decades before Wolfe, though, Steven Beering, four years into his 18-year tenure as Purdue’s ninth president, survived a similar run-in with faculty unhappy about how he was running things.
On Oct. 19, 1987, according to University Senate records and Journal & Courier accounts, 61% of University Senate members voted to poll the faculty on one question: “I have confidence in Steven C. Beering as president of Purdue University.” That effort fell four votes shy of a two-thirds majority necessary to advance a proposed broader mail poll of faculty across campus.
At the time, professors pressing for the vote of no confidence came with allegations that Beering was out of touch and had bypassed faculty on too many issues, coming to a head with decisions on medical insurance for university employees.
“I think it would be useful information to Beering to know whether the faculty like him or don’t like him,” Gunnar Kullerod, a professor of geology at the time, said, according to a J&C report. “I have a feeling that his support from the faculty and staff is eroding.”
Beering was surprised by the rising dissatisfaction and accusations that his management style was autocratic and insensitive, according to reports that landed on the front page of the J&C. He called the allegations “unfounded, untruthful and insulting” and were coming from professors who “don’t know me.”
