BREAKING: Dal faculty union votes no confidence in president, former provosts and board chair

Dalhousie University’s faculty union voted that they have no confidence in three leading positions at the school, evaluating their work from July 2024 to June 2026. 

Over 420 faculty members, nearly 72% of those who submitted their ballots, voted that they have no confidence in the three positions. 

The anonymous vote opened on Sept. 15 for over 1100 full-time professors, librarians, counsellors and instructors who make up the Dalhousie Faculty Association. Just under 600 members, or 53% per cent of the Dalhousie Faculty Association, participated in the vote. 

A vote of no confidence is a non-binding motion used to show a group’s lack of trust in leadership. 91 faculty members voted that they have confidence in the roles, with another 77 abstaining.

The vote judged the work of President Kim Brooks and board of governors’ chair Cheryl Fraser during the period — both of whom still hold their positions. It also evaluated Marty Leonard and Wanda Costen, who were both provosts and vice-president academics during the period.

“[The results] affirm this feeling that people were dissatisfied,” says David Westwood, DFA president-elect. “People don’t have confidence in the senior leadership of our administration.”

Dal’s current acting provost, Brenda Merritt, was explicitly excluded from the no-confidence vote to focus on the DFA’s main issues with university operations. 

David Westwood, the DFA’s president-elect, says the vote focused on the university’s decisions that led to the hiring freeze, the lockout, the bilateral agreement with the provincial government and Dal’s fracking development deal with the province. 

He says the vote is meant to show the union’s frustrations with Dal administration, not to call for resignations. 

“It’s a message to [Dal’s] leadership,” he says. “It doesn’t actually compel any action.” 

Neither Brooks nor Fraser responded to a request for comment from the Dalhousie Gazette.

“Discussions around non-confidence can understandably create concern and frustration amongst our community,” said Janet Bryson, Dal’s director of communications, in an emailed statement to the Gazette on Sept. 14, before the results of the vote were revealed.

“Rebuilding relationships is important work that takes time. Dalhousie continues to engage with the Dalhousie Faculty Association to better understand their concerns.”

Vote is about the administration, not the people

The DFA held a town hall meeting on Sept. 10 to address any questions that union members had about the vote of no confidence.

Dominic Silvio, DFA president, says attendees were concerned about potential consequences of the vote’s outcome.

“We really don’t know … how the administration interprets [the vote]. It’s up to them,” he says. “We have to let them know that we’re not happy.”

Jason Haslam, the McCulloch professor of English at Dal and DFA executive member, says the vote’s results are a statement from the union because they are concerned about the university’s direction. 

“I’m interested in this university that I’ve invested a significant portion of my life in functioning well,” he says. “I hope that we return to the practice as laid out in senate [and DFA agreement] policies.”

Haslam says that he doesn’t want the vote to end in anyone’s resignation, but would rather see it lead to faculty becoming more involved in university governance. 

“The institution only works if the staff that work here are confident in the direction the ship’s taking,” says Westwood.

Westwood says he plans to communicate with the Dalhousie Student Union to see if they are interested in holding a similar vote.

“There’s really no accountability for senior leaders,” he says. “This is just one piece of feedback.”

“I don’t recognize this place anymore.”

Jennifer Stamp is a teaching fellow in Dal’s psychology and neuroscience department who has taught at the university for over 30 years and earned multiple degrees at the school.

She says she “doesn’t recognize” the university she’s committed her life to.

“[The university] genuinely cared about ideas and students, and I’m not seeing enough of that,” she says. “A lot of the decisions that have been made by the upper administration have been in direct contrast to idea generation, promoting students and setting them off on their path.”

Stamp says that she has no problems with Brooks as a person, but doesn’t agree with a lot of the decisions her administration has made since she became president in 2023. 

“I see this vote as a chance for me to have a voice … I can’t count all the Dalhousie stuff I have in my house,” she says. “But things suck.”