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Barnard faculty pass vote of no confidence in Rosenbury, first recorded instance in college history
Seventy-seven percent of voting faculty voted no confidence in Rosenbury following a unanimous vote by Barnard’s American Association for University Professors chapter.

By Gaby Díaz-Vendrell / Staff PhotographerThe vote received a 72.4 percent response rate.By Maya Stahl • April 30, 2024 at 5:29 PM
By Maya Stahl • April 30, 2024 at 5:29 PM
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Barnard faculty overwhelmingly passed a vote of no confidence in President Laura Rosenbury on Tuesday with 77 percent of respondents in favor—the first recorded instance of a Barnard president ever receiving such a vote.
The vote follows the first 10 months of a so far tumultuous tenure marked by numerous policy changes and unprecedented disciplinary proceedings against dozens of students for engaging in protest and activism on campus. After the Barnard chapter of the American Association for University Professors issued a unanimous vote of no confidence in Rosenbury on April 22, the vote was formally sent to the Faculty Governance and Procedures Committee for all faculty to vote.
The Faculty Governance and Procedures Committee issued the vote and announced its results in a Tuesday email to Barnard faculty. A total of 409 faculty members were either eligible to vote or included in the voter rolls, and the vote received a 72.4 percent response rate. A total of 228 faculty members voted “agree” to the no-confidence vote, 56 voted “disagree,” and 12 voted to abstain.
A Barnard spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On April 22, 102 faculty members of the Barnard chapter of the AAUP issued a unanimous vote of no confidence. The chapter’s vote was on five grounds, including a lack of care for students; a disregard for shared faculty governance; multiple violations of academic freedom and freedom of expression; “administrative chaos at every level of the college”; and an undermining of the “longstanding and cherished culture of Barnard.”
Frederick Neuhouser, GSAS ’80, GSAS ’88, professor of German and philosophy and president of the Barnard chapter of the AAUP, previously told Spectator that the AAUP’s vote was more than just a symbolic statement but rather a call for a dramatic change in course such as “implicitly a call for resignation.”
About 51 percent of presidents who receive a vote of “no confidence” leave their position within a year, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Colleges and universities across the country have seen a surge in votes of “no confidence” against university presidents in recent years. Now, some colleges are seeing “no confidence” votes for presidential decisions to arrest students for pro-Palestinian protests. According to the Berkley Beacon, Emerson College’s student government association unanimously passed a resolution on Friday calling on President Jay Bernardt to resign after the “Popular University Encampment” ended with 118 arrests.
“I hope this vote has the effect of instigating real change in the way Barnard is run and organized, including long-term changes, especially around the issue of shared governance, shared faculty governance,” Neuhouser said. “Because the events of this academic year have revealed really clearly to us something we really weren’t aware of before, namely, that faculty participation in governance at Barnard is really very small and we have very few powers compared to the faculty at Columbia, for example.”
Deputy News Editor Maya Stahl can be contacted at maya.stahl@columbiaspectator.com. Follow Spectator on X @ColumbiaSpec.
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