Hofstra University faculty vote no confidence in President Susan Poser, Provost Charles Riordan
Hofstra University president Susan Poser at a Long Island Regional Economic Development Council Meeting in 2024. Credit: Corey Sipkin
Hofstra University professors approved a no-confidence vote in the school’s president and provost Friday, with faculty members saying the administration is not including them in decisions that include budget cuts and a proposed academic overhaul.
The resolution rebuking Hofstra’s president, Susan Poser, and its provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, Charles Riordan, passed by a vote of 154-92, or 63% of those who participated, said Anthony Basile, president of Hofstra’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors.
The three-page resolution stated that faculty lack faith in Poser’s and Riordan’s "competence, judgment, transparency and capacity to lead."
A majority of full-time professors participated in the vote during a video conference, said Basile, an accounting professor. The vote was proposed by a faculty member on Nov. 6, and it is not a union action, he said.
Hofstra’s board of trustees expressed support for Poser and Riordan, as well as "profound disappointment" in the vote, in a statement released after the meeting.
Poser was appointed in 2021 and Riordan in 2022.
"At a time of extraordinary change in higher education, we need the faculty’s expertise, candid advice, and willingness to engage productively to address the myriad challenges we face," the board said in the statement. "Instead, this resolution turns disagreements about institutional choices and process into a sweeping indictment of the competence and judgment of our president and provost. The Board of Trustees rejects that indictment as groundless."
The board also said documents related to the no-confidence vote were "replete with errors."
In a 13-page document distributed before the vote, faculty members said Hofstra’s enrollment has dropped over the past two years, it has been offering more tuition discounts and it has fallen in national college rankings. The school ranked 191st among national universities in the most recent U.S. News & World Report rankings. In 2022, the publication ranked the school 166th.
Basile and other faculty members said they understand that the university needs to reduce costs but they said professors should take part in the decision-making. He said the university eliminated about 20 secretarial jobs over the summer.
Under the current administration, decision-making has "really lacked inclusion of the faculty," said Richard Jones, an associate professor of accounting who has taught at Hofstra for 29 years.
"It was important to send a message," Jones said of the vote. "We want to make sure that the administration understands that there needs to be shared governance."
Newsday did not receive an immediate response from Hofstra on Friday evening in response to questions about enrollment and secretarial staff numbers.
The trustees in their statement rejected criticisms leveled by the faculty. They said that the faculty resolution "treats an enrollment shortfall as proof of incompetence" and said that the decrease was "due to a drastic change in federal policy."
The statement did not specify the federal policy changes. The Trump administration has enacted visa restrictions targeting international students.
Referring to Poser and Riordan, the trustees said, "We support their continued leadership."
Maura McDermott covers education. Since joining Newsday in 2012, she also has worked on the investigations team and covered real estate and the business of health care.
