This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon: Faculty senate meetings at Saint Louis University have been open to reporters this year as the senate voted no confidence in the Rev. Lawrence Biondi, the school’s president, and sought his resignation.
But Tuesday, when Biondi and the new leaders of the SLU board of trustees are set to meet with the senate, no media will be allowed. A university spokeswoman said the meeting was being closed to anyone but members of the faculty “per agreement of those involved the meeting.” Biondi said earlier this month that he would be stepping down.
Senate bylaws say meetings "shall be open to all members of the Faculty,” but they do not include a requirement that meetings be open to others.
Mark Knuepfer, whose term as president of the senate ended last month, noted in an email that during his tenure, “we did not have any policy to exclude anyone. I believe it was within our right to do so, though.”
At the meeting on Oct. 30, when the senate overwhelmingly voted no confidence in Biondi’s leadership, photographers were allowed, but after that, Knuepfer said, “some faculty had concerns regarding their future and did not want to allow anyone to take their picture at the meeting. Therefore, we banned photography in the meetings beginning with the November 13th, 2012 meeting.”
He added:
“This decision was made by the Faculty Senate Executive Committee. In my view, these rules can be changed by the FSEC as long as all SLU faculty are welcome to attend.”
His successor as president, Jane Turner, could not be reached immediately for comment on why Tuesday's meeting was closed to reporters. A university spokesman said that the decision was made by all parties involved and later relayed word from J. Joe Adorjan, chairman of the SLU board of trustees, who is scheduled to be at the meeting, that he believes that it is important that all who attend feel free to share comments at the meeting without concern that what they say will be reported in the media.
Over the past several months, Biondi has not responded to requests for interviews and has not been available to comment on the growing clamor for his resignation.
Biondi met with the Student Government Association on campus last month. Reporters were barred, despite a provision in the SGA constitution that its meetings be open to the public, and two members of the faculty were also told to leave.
Biondi had originally been scheduled to meet with the Faculty Senate on April 30, along with the head of the board of trustees, but a few days before the meeting he sent word that he would not be attending. He said that because board chairman Thomas Brouster had said he would be stepping down from that post, he preferred to wait until a new board chair was chosen before meeting with faculty leaders.
At the board’s meeting on May 4, Adorjan was chosen to a third term as chairman of the board of trustees. That night, Biondi announced to a gala that was celebrating his 25 years as SLU president that he had asked the board to begin looking for his successor.
In an interview with the Beacon on May 8, Adorjan said he would not be able to attend a special senate meeting that had been set for May 14 because he would be out of town, but he and Biondi would attend a meeting that had been scheduled for this Tuesday.
In the interview, Adorjan also stressed that he intended to improve the university’s communication with all of its various constituencies to help avoid a repeat of the strife and standoff between faculty members and the administration that had built up during the past academic year.
Besides Biondi and Adorjan, also expected to meet with the senate on Tuesday are Patrick Sly, vice chair of the board of trustees, and Ellen Harshman, who became SLU’s interim vice president of academic affairs in December after the resignation of Manoj Patankar. He also had been the target of a no-confidence vote by faculty.
According to the agenda of the senate meeting, Sly is expected to present results of a survey of the climate on the SLU campus that was issued to faculty, staff and students in March.