On March 6, 2026 members of the faculty assembly voted to censure the Executive Leadership Team (ELT) in a 212-29 vote, with 21 members abstaining.
A vote of censure serves as a severe public reprimand, allowing legislative bodies to express disapproval toward a member, president or official for misconduct.
According to the Vote of Censure Proposal signed by the Faculty Assembly, UCCS budgetary issues are a result of chronic mismanagement and poor leadership decisions, including ignoring faculty input, relying on one-time funds, underpaying faculty and staff, overpaying and increasing administrative positions and increasing debt by investing in unnecessary infrastructure — such as refurbishing the National Cybersecurity Center.
In the next five years, UCCS must reduce expenses by about $27 million to permanently close the budget gap, beginning with an $11.7 million cut in fiscal year 2027. Budget cuts will include laying off faculty members and staff and terminating programs.
According to the proposal a lack of shared governance has weakened the faculty’s trust in the ELT’s decision-making abilities. According to the proposal, faculty, staff and students are asked to legitimize decisions with partial, limited or even incorrect information.
Additionally, colleges have consistently balanced their budgets, so the budget gaps lie at the administrative level.
“The largest budget gaps are in administrative units, further reinforcing that faculty did not create this crisis, and yet we must bear the brunt of its impacts,” the proposal said.
The proposal also asserts that the ELT has inadequately managed enrollment, leading to decline.
According to the proposal, the vote of censure gives administration the opportunity to take corrective action and fix past decisions. Corrective actions include providing faculty with alternate budgets before decisions are made, initiating transparent accounting practices and no longer misleading faculty, staff and student representatives with false information.
As outlined in the proposal, the dean of each college expects to receive full accounting and budget numbers to review and plan for the health of their own programs by March 17.
Administration is also expected to make extensive budgetary cuts to its own budget while making sure critical university operations are unimpacted.
If the assembly feels no progress has been made by March 31, they will move forward with a vote of no confidence in the ELT.
Photo via The Scribe archive.