A group of senior members of the University of Southern Maine faculty gathered 53 signatures — roughly 15 percent of faculty at USM — from full, tenured faculty over the last week and a half, triggering a faculty-wide referendum for a no-confidence vote in USM President Selma Botman.
The petition was drawn up three or four weeks ago, said signer and physics professor Jerry LaSala, partly in response to a survey conducted by the faculty union that showed significant amounts of discontent among faculty regarding the administration and USM’s academic reorganization approved in May 2010 by the University of Maine System Board of Trustees.
“We’ve come to the conclusion that this is a chronic and apparently unchangeable solution,” LaSala said.
Below is the petition and the signers, obtained by The Free Press from the Faculty Senate Blackboard site.
College Breakdown of Signers
College of Management and Human Services: 18
College of Science Technology and Health: 15
College of Arts, Humanities and Science: 15
Lewiston Auburn College: 4
Russell Scholars Program: 1
Professor |
College |
| Jerry LaSala | CSTH |
| Mark Lapping | CMHS |
| Luisa Deprez | CAHS |
| William Steele | CAHS |
| F.C. McGrath | CAHS |
| Kate Forhan | CMHS |
| Louis Gainey Jr. | CSTH |
| Kenneth Weber | CSTH |
| Michael Mazurkiewicz | CSTH |
| Bruce Clary | CMHS |
| Henry Tracy | CSTH |
| Irwin Novak | CSTH |
| Stephen Pollock | CSTH |
| William Gayton | CSTH |
| Carol Nemeroff | LAC |
| Lynne Miller | CMHS |
| Joseph Capelluti | CMHS |
| Eve Raimon | CAHS |
| Peter Aicher | CAHS |
| Charles Weth | CSTH |
| Bill Thornton | CSTH |
| Joel Gold | CMHS |
| George Violette | CMHS |
| Ardis Cameron | CAHS |
| Robert Sanford | CSTH |
| James Shaffer | CMHS |
| John Voyer | CMHS |
| Wayne Cowart | CSTH |
| James Messerschmidt | CAHS |
| David Wagner | CMHS |
| Lydia Savage | CMHS |
| Judy Shepard-Kegl | CSTH |
| Thomas Power | CAHS |
| Scott Brown | CSTH |
| Bruce Roberts | CAHS |
| Susan Feinder | CAHS |
| Piers Beirne | CAHS |
| Jan Hitchcock | LAC |
| Marvin Druker | LAC |
| Jack Kartez | CMHS |
| Susan Fineran | CMHS |
| Tara Healy | CMHS |
| Nancy Gish | CAHS |
| Michael Hamilton | CAHS |
| Charles Colgan | CMHS |
| Matthew Edney | CMHS |
| Roxie Black | LAC |
| Barbara Fraumeni | CMHS |
| George Caffentzis | CAHS |
| Dana McDaniel | CSTH |
| Vincent Faherty | CMHS |
| Charles Kading | CAHS |
| Stephen Romanoff | RSP |
A key clarification here is that these are not simply full-time professors, as the article indicates. These are FULL professors, those who hold the highest academic rank at USM. There are many full time faculty who are assistant or associate professors. They were not asked sign the petition to avoid possible retaliation.