Lincoln University President Kevin Rome told LU's Faculty Senate Friday he considered their "no confidence" vote in Said Sewell's job performance as "a powerful tool used by a faculty to express concerns about the performance of a provost."
But, since Sewell has "decided to take an extended leave of absence from Lincoln University for personal reasons," Rome wrote in a one-page letter, "we will develop a corrective plan of action to address the concerns of the faculty" when Sewell returns from his leave.
No one has indicated how long Sewell's leave will last or whether it is a paid- or unpaid-leave.
Meanwhile, Rome announced to Lincoln's faculty, staff and students on Friday an interim provost and vice president for Academic Affairs (VPAA) will be announced Tuesday.
The Faculty Senate voted 88-18 on Sept. 29, with six abstentions, in favor of a resolution saying they "no longer (have) confidence in the ability of Dr. Sewell to lead Academic Affairs; the College of Agriculture, Environmental and Human Sciences; the College of Arts and Sciences; the College of Professional Studies; or the Office of Graduate Studies."
The Senate's resolution also said: "Dr. Sewell has repeatedly violated the principles of shared governance and has not responded in any substantive way to the concerns expressed by our members. We do not expect any improvement from the current VPAA."
By the Faculty Senate's rules, the proposed resolution was circulated among the faculty and administration a week before the scheduled vote.
Less than an hour before that Sept. 29 vote, Sewell distributed his seven-page response, urging the faculty to reject the proposed resolution.
"I unequivocally deny the allegations leveled against the Office of VPAA by the Executive Committee of the faculty senate," Sewell wrote.
Almost three weeks after the vote, the Faculty Senate's executive committee sent Rome a two-page letter asking him for an "official response" to the no confidence vote in Sewell's work - and raising some additional concerns faculty members have with some events at Lincoln.
Rome's one-page Friday letter was a response to the executive committee's Oct. 16 letter, and a copy of Rome's response was provided to the News Tribune by Faculty Senate Chair Bryan Salmons.
The faculty's unhappiness with Sewell first became a public issue almost 14 months ago, when rumors began circulating that LU would launch a national search to replace two long-serving professors who, for years, had served as deans - Ruthi Sturdevant, an LU graduate who was dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and Linda Bickel, dean of the College of Graduate Studies and head of the Office of Professional Studies.
Sewell at the time argued dean appointments are made for a limited time, usually two or three years, and Rome's new administration should have the right to see if others should be considered for the jobs.
Those searches initially were delayed, then started before the end of the last school year.
Sturdevant since has retired, and Bickel - who never has commented publicly about the changes - is doing other work for Lincoln.
The Faculty Senate's executive committee letter - signed by Salmons, who also heads LU's English, Foreign Language and Journalism department - advised Rome: "Numerous faculty have recently expressed mounting concern regarding the procedures emplaced for the selection of the new Deans/Vice-Provosts. Specifically, there are rumors circulating that the committee composed for the purpose of selecting the candidates for the Dean of Arts and Sciences/Vice-Provost of Student Success experienced aberrant interference with their work and that many members of that committee felt that less-than-objective evaluative perspectives were contaminating the process."
Rome responded last week: "I find it inappropriate to allow rumors to drive decisions related to the Dean of Arts and Sciences/Vice-Provost of Student Success hiring process.
"I have no reason to believe that either deans' search has been compromised in any manner."
The Faculty Senate's executive committee raised concerns "the agendas released (for) the visiting candidates do not indicate that the prospective candidates will meet with any hiring committee as such. That, too, strikes many as odd and further undermines the vitally necessary fact and perception of legitimacy when one is hiring for such a prominent position to which so many faculty will be answerable."
Salmons' letter didn't cite past history - before Rome became Lincoln's 19th president in 2013, faculty search committee recommendations carried a lot of weight in the search process.
Rome responded: "It should be noted that a committee does not have hiring authority.
"The committee is constituted to coordinate, vet, and capture feedback on the candidates."
The Faculty Senate executive committee's Oct. 16 letter said it was "concerned that there is a conflation of roles woven into the descriptions that could prove impossible to manage in practice without rupturing, as it were, the basic hierarchical functioning of the university's broad alignments into divisions of student affairs and academics.
"For instance, it is specified that the Dean of Arts and Sciences will have some penultimate authority over 'student success,' whereas the Dean of Professional Studies will have penultimate authority over 'faculty engagement.'"
Rome told the faculty: "The office of the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs has been a one-person shop for many years.
"The new structure allows more shared governance as duties are spread out amongst several individuals who can represent the voice and needs of the faculty.
"As the individuals take the new post(s), let's work together to further define the details of how student success and faculty development can be achieved."
Rome also said the interim provost and VPAA "will work with the campus to move the searches forward," and he thanked the faculty and the Senate's executive committee "for all the hard work and dedication it exhibits for Lincoln University."
Salmons told the News Tribune Friday he was studying Rome's letter and did not have any immediate comment about it.