Email from Mary Greer to Staff Councilors, November 28, 2006:
Hello,
Several of you have asked for more information as to what changed our course on the vote of no confidence in the leadership of the Board of Regents.
I can't say much, because we all agreed that this was the Governor's meeting, and that Governor Vilsack was to be the spokesperson. However, it is important that I share with you as much as I can as to why we agreed to postpone the vote of no confidence and revisit it in January.
Governor Vilsack never asked us to cancel our vote of no confidence. He simply asked if he could have some time to work on the issues we presented to him, including our concerns about our relationship with the BOR. He indicated that a vote of no confidence at this time would impede any progress we hoped to make on any of the issues brought forward. He is not asking us to sit back and relax, or let time heal: he requested time to get to work on this.
Remember: the meeting took 3 hours. Don't think for a minute that we didn't challenge "why should we wait." Shelly Kurtz asked Governor Vilsack if the three campus leaders (Shelly, Pete McElligott and I) could consult in private and in doing so we concluded that to postpone (not cancel, not delay indefinitely) the votes would be the best move forward at this time.
It feels extremely secretive now, and I too wish that weren't the case. However, I have confidence that the Governor will publicly share in time what ideas were discussed and the steps taken to resolve them.
Mary
Mary E. Greer
2006-07 President
The University of Iowa Staff Council
319.353.6055
mary-greer@uiowa.edu
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http://www.uiowa.edu/~staff
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