A majority of Arts and Sciences faculty who took part in a non-binding online poll in January have expressed no confidence in President Adams’s leadership.
Seventy percent of the 474 faculty who voted said “no” when asked “Do you have confidence in President Adams as the leader of UGA?” Fifteen percent responded yes, and another 15 percent abstained. Two-thirds of Arts and Sciences faculty took part in the survey.
“The Faculty Senate…recognizes that President Adams has made many positive contributions to the university,” according to a statement released by the Faculty Senate. “We acknowledge that a number of the difficulties faced by the university stem from the current economic climate, over which the president has no control, and we thank him for his efforts to mitigate the effects of hard economic times. We do, however, have serious concerns about the direction in which the university has moved, and continues to move, under President Adams’s leadership.”
“When a colleague expresses an opinion about your work performance, it is important first to listen, think about it objectively and then learn from it,” says President Adams, in response to the Faculty Senate statement. “The faculty members within Arts and Sciences, who are essential to our core instructional mission, have expressed a viewpoint that I intend to take as constructive criticism. It is important to take criticism and learn from it.
“My personal goal will be to listen and follow a collegial approach that will allow us to make the University of Georgia a better place for our students and a place responsive to our many constituencies,” Adams says.
