‘No-confidence’ vote concludes over West Texas A&M University president’s leadership

CANYON, Texas (KFDA) - Today, the West Texas A&M University faculty completed a no-confidence vote in University President Dr. Walter Wendler’s leadership.

The vote has taken place over the last five days after the WT Faculty Senate requested all faculty to participate in the no-confidence vote.

In a resolution outlining the reasoning of the no-confidence vote, the WT Faculty Senate claims “President Wendler has repeatedly and explicitly encouraged prospective students to not attend WT (at first) by arguing that ‘it is immoral, costly, and cruel to mislead students’ into attending a four-year institution rather than a community college” and “thereby undermining the university’s student recruitment and retention efforts.”

The resolution also states “President Wendler has used university resources and his position as university president to govern based on personal religious ideology in apparent violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.”

Other reasons cited in the resolution claim Wendler posted his personal opinions on a community blog associated with the university and claim he has “shown a pattern of divisive misogynistic, homophobic and non-inclusive rhetoric.”

This comes after Dr. Wendler sent an email canceling a drag show on campus in March. Since then, students led protests on campus and joined a lawsuit.

The voting took place throughout the week and concluded at 5:00 p.m.

The vote is non-binding, meaning the faculty cannot vote President Wendler out because he is hired by the Texas A&M University System.

NewsChannel 10 has requested information on the results of the voting and asked for interviews from the university.

At this time, the WTAMU Office of Communication said the ballots will not be tallied until early next week and no interviews are available at this time.

Minutes for the most recent Senate Faculty meetings are not yet available.

We will continue to follow this story as it unfolds.

You can read the letter from the WTAMU Faculty Senate and Resolution below:

Copyright 2023 KFDA. All rights reserved.