UPDATE 9:00p.m. April 14, 2013: In an email to the Steinhardt faculty, faculty council chair Floyd Hammack announced that a meeting dedicated to the topic of university governance will be held on Monday, April 22. The Faculty Affairs Committee and Faculty Council will write an agenda and send it to the faculty this week.

“Faculty in Steinhardt refused to allow misuse of the bylaws to be used to stop their discussion of a no-confidence vote and the crisis of leadership that led to the FAS vote,” professor of social studies education Robert Cohen said.

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At the Steinhardt faculty meeting on Monday, a discussion on university governance began but failed to reach a conclusion.

Robert Cohen, a professor of social studies education, said the last hour of the meeting was allocated to repetitive discussions about administration, but that it was not enough time for the faculty to come to any conclusion.

Cohen said the faculty asked to hold another meeting for the sole purpose of completing the conversations sparked by the meeting.

“When I asked for a show of hands as to how many faculty wanted to continue this discussion of the governance crisis, virtually all the faculty in the meeting raised their hands to show their support,” Cohen said.

Cohen explained that because of rules outlined in the school bylaws, the faculty must petition to hold another meeting.

According to the bylaws, a faculty member must request to schedule a special meeting before any of the items on the agenda of the current meeting are discussed. However, the bylaws also say that the chairperson is supposed to ask for any motions to hold a special meeting at the beginning of every meeting.

Cohen said that this was not done at the meeting on April 8.

Professor of international education Philip Hosay wrote an email to the chair of the Steinhardt faculty and professor of education sociology, Floyd Hammack, to inform him of this mistake and request that an official meeting for the topic of governance be scheduled.

Hammack said no official plans for another meeting have been made yet.

“We are working through the process of moving forward from our meeting Monday,” Hammack stated.

Cohen said much of the faculty at the meeting was upset that more time was not originally dedicated to this topic.

“Judging by the sentiment in that meeting, I would say that the Sexton administration has little faculty support in Steinhardt,” Cohen said.

Hammack approximated that 100 members were present at the meeting.

Nicole Brown is investigative editor. Email her at [email protected]