U of M faculty vote ‘no confidence’ in interim president, provost over Holocaust center hiring
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The University of Minnesota’s Faculty Senate took a vote of no confidence Wednesday in Interim President Jeff Ettinger and Provost Rachel Croson, after the president paused the hiring process for the new director of the U’s Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
A search committee of faculty and staff had offered the director position to Raz Segal, an Israeli historian and genocide scholar. Segal is critical of Israel, and called Israel’s attacks on Gaza a “textbook case of genocide” in an October 2023 essay in the magazine Jewish Currents.
Two professors resigned from the center’s board in protest of the hire. Some community members and Twin Cities Jewish organizations also criticized the choice.
That prompted Ettinger to step in. Earlier this month, he paused the hiring process and announced that the university would restart with a new search committee, this time including members of the community.
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Some faculty at the university are criticizing that intervention, claiming it undermined the search process and violated academic freedom.
Professor and faculty senator Michael Gallope introduced the no-confidence measures.
“Any punishment of a student, staff, or faculty member for respectfully expressing their views violates the university’s mission and endangers its core values of free inquiry,” Gallope said.
Faculty voted “no confidence” in both Ettinger and Provost Croson, with a tally of 67 ayes and 38 nays for Ettinger and 55 ayes and 48 nays for Croson. The measures needed a simple majority to pass.
Faculty at the senate meeting said they’re worried about political interests outside the university interfering in university hiring processes. They said center directors, like faculty, need to be able to research and express their opinions without worrying about whether they can keep their jobs.
Christina Ewig is a professor and the director of the university’s Center on Women, Gender and Public Policy. She voted in favor of the no-confidence measure.
“There are plenty of controversial issues that I work with in my center. Not everyone agrees with the idea of equal rights for women,” Ewig said. “As a center director and as a professor, it is more important to have academic freedom, because without such protections I surely could not do my job.”
At Wednesday’s meeting, Ettinger said he did not intend to undermine faculty. He said he wanted to give community members a chance to weigh in on the hiring, considering the community interest in the center beyond the university.
“Ultimately I tried to look at the totality of the circumstances and make the decision that I thought was in the best interest of the university, and that decision was to rescind the initial offer and pause the search,” Ettinger said.
He clarified that hiring decisions for teaching and research roles are left to faculty, but said the role of a center director merits input from university administration.
The vote followed a similar no-confidence measure approved last week by a faculty group in the university’s College of Liberal Arts.
Ettinger said that a new hiring process for the director of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies will likely start in the 2025-26 school year.
Ettinger is scheduled to depart his role as interim president next week. Rebecca Cunningham will take his place to serve as the president of the university.