WEST LIBERTY — Only 11% of survey respondents among West Liberty University’s faculty and staff think WLU President W. Franklin Evans is capable of leading the university, and even fewer trust his integrity.

The wide gulf between some members of the university’s faculty and the embattled president came to light with the results of a recent survey distributed to WLU faculty, as well as multiple members of Evans’ cabinet. Evans, for his part, said he was blindsided with the results and that the faculty senate had opportunities to present their concerns to him during the group’s regular meetings, but didn’t.

Evans, the first Black president in the university’s history, also questioned whether his race played a part in the way the survey was conducted and the results presented.

The survey’s results were brought to light after they were given anonymously to multiple news outlets.

The Charleston Gazette-Mail reported on the matter Wednesday.

The Intelligencer and Wheeling News-Register obtained their own copy of the results Wednesday.

The results of the survey show widespread distrust in Evans’ leadership ability, his worthiness to head the school, his transparency and openness with faculty, and with his personal integrity. Questions covered topics ranging from whether or not Evans had met with or visited faculty in their workspaces, if he took faculty feedback seriously, if he had strategically aligned resources with his objectives, or whether or not respondents were confident in his integrity.

WLU Faculty Senate Chair Sean Ryan told the Gazette-Mail that 149 people out of the 231 given surveys responded before it was closed March 18.

When contacted by the Intelligencer and News-Register on Wednesday, he declined further comment, saying the press around it was “counterproductive.”

“It was not intended to be a nationally publicized document, but was to provide feedback to Dr. Evans and the (WLU Board of Governors),” he said. “Until the board does their assessment, I don’t think that’s appropriate to discuss it outside the university.”

A Two-Way Street

The results of the survey show a clear distrust of Evans from those who responded. Seventy-five percent of respondents said they disagreed, or strongly so, that Evans’ interests align with those of the best interests of the school. Seventy-eight percent disagreed that Evans represents faculty interests, and 79% disagreed that he takes the faculty’s input seriously.

Evans said Wednesday that he was not consulted on the faculty’s concerns by anyone until he was presented with the survey results, which were delivered to him in a folder.

“The first conversation I had with the faculty senate was when they brought these results to me,” he said. “The faculty senate only made me aware … when they handed me the result. There was no discussion with the senate about a survey being done, I did not receive a survey, and only when the results were being given … did I have any discussions with the chair, (Ryan).

Evans claims the faculty senate had ample opportunity to present him with their concerns during regular meetings of the faculty senate, but that he was blindsided with the results after the fact.

“The disappointing thing is that I have been in attendance at each of the faculty senate meetings,” he said. “There was no discussion at these meetings on their agenda. It seems I’m being asked – and I try to be transparent, but I’m not getting the same thing from them. I heard the rumor that there was the survey; I did not have a chance to discuss anything with them.”

Evans does not believe the survey demonstrated “any type of cooperative or collaborative effort.”

“I look at it like being an employee going in for an annual evaluation, and your supervisor hands you the evaluation,” he said. “You’re looking at the criteria for the first time, and being like, ‘Oh! This is what you were assessing me on? It would have been nice to know you wanted these before you did the assessment.'”

Evans said that he’d “glanced” at the results of the survey, adding that he felt the first question – asking if faculty had been visited by Evans in their workspaces – set the tone for the rest of the questions, with 92% responding “no.”

With overwhelmingly negative responses to every question, Evans said, he would interpret the results as more helpful if he’d been given more input with the survey’s creation. Additionally, he took issue with the survey having apparently been sent to groups outside the faculty, such as members of his cabinet.

“If it was a fair instrument, an objective instrument, I would be much more concerned,” he said. “I wasn’t sure who all would be taking the survey; I read that it went to faculty, to members of the cabinet, and I’m thinking, how could that be, if members of the cabinet are not faculty? If that’s the case, if you opened it up to a group that’s not faculty, how can I know there are other groups that are represented as well?”

In October, WLU faculty had been surveyed regarding Evans’ performance and integrity while he was embroiled in a plagiarism scandal, where 86% of respondents considered Evans’ leadership “compromised,” 73% would have given a vote of no confidence in Evans, and 60% of those who would have made the vote would also call for his resignation. This survey was answered by 66% of faculty. The faculty senate voted 14-1, with one abstention, to issue a vote of no confidence in Evans’ leadership.

Evans was accused of having lifted quotes, without attribution, for speeches given on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a speech he gave on Juneteenth, and a convocation speech given on Sept. 15. He subsequently apologized in a letter to the university, and was formally censured by the Board of Governors. He survived termination by a 7-5 vote among the board and was subjected to unspecified disciplinary measures.

Evans said Wednesday that he has been transparent since the accusations came to light. He said he thinks of himself as an effective communicator who works out in the open, but that the faculty members do not return that transparency.

“I’m open; I’m providing information on what’s going on, not only with the faculty senate, but with the staff as well, and periodically, every month or every two weeks, there’s the president’s newsletter that goes out,” he said. “The communication is there, the openness is there, the transparency is there, so if there is a breakdown, it’s certainly not on my part. I’m not seeing the same courtesy, the same action I’m giving, is not coming back in the same way.

“… One of the items talked about, relative to the president sharing the goals of the institution with faculty, was one where people strongly disagreed. I’m thinking, how can that be? Every time I’m in a formal setting, at every board meeting every two months, I focus on our goals as a priority, what we’ve done over the last few weeks to achieve and be successful. … For people to say they have no idea, that is false.”

‘Why Is It Different For Me?’

Evans said he felt that his race, being WLU’s first Black president, may play a factor in his perceived shortcomings as president. Evans, in his interview with the Gazette-Mail criticized the “microaggressions” on campus, and the “subtle, unintentional discrimination, racist actions and behaviors” at work.

Evans stood by his remarks Wednesday, saying that he feels he’s being held to a different standard than other presidents of the university. He pointed out, for example, that the survey asked if Evans had visited faculty in their workspaces, something he was not in the habit of doing, nor was it a practice he was familiar with in higher education.

“The mere fact that a survey was done – had a similar survey been done with the previous presidents?” he asked. “… The idea that there was an expectation to meet people in their offices, in their classrooms, and what president is expected to do that? That’s something that … is an expectation for me, that if I don’t do it, I’m punished for.”

Evans, a veteran educator himself, had never seen administrators of a similar rank expected to do the same. That, he said, was an example of how he is being held to a different set of expectations.

“It speaks to me, coming from a marginalized group, it’s not the same behavior that had been expected before,” he said. “Why is it different for me? … It’s the everyday, day-in-and-out, unrealistic expectations they have for me, and it really is biased. These are not the expectations that existed before. Why, all of a sudden, are they existing now? Is it because I’m younger than the other presidents? Is it because I’m a single parent? I would say no. It has to do with the four-letter word we don’t like to talk about.”

Evans added that he had heard – and acted on – threatening comments made to him by faculty members, some of which were made in front of students. Campus police and human resources were informed of the threats, Evans said. He said the comments started ramping up around the fall.

“Several were anonymous,” he said, “but there have been comments made by faculty of a threatening nature.”

Rich Lucas, who serves as the head of West Liberty University’s Board of Governors, said he had spoken with Evans Wednesday morning, saying that the board was willing to help Evans pursue and address racism in whatever way he saw fit.

“I told him that at any time, the Board of (Governors) would be available to discuss it,” Lucas said. “This was the first we heard of it, at a public level. … Whatever path he, or the university, decided … was necessary, the board would be behind him to support him.”

While Ryan declined comment to the Intelligencer and News-Register, he told the Gazette-Mail that the survey was not constituted to be biased and that significant measures were taken to make sure it was absent of bias.

Ryan also told the Gazette-Mail it sounded like “the president is attacking faculty and attacking the effort to provide that feedback, rather than accept responsibility for how he is perceived.”

Looking To The Future

Evans’ contract to continue serving as president expires at the year’s end if not renewed, a process Lucas said would likely be tackled this summer.

“We are in the middle of Dr. Evans’ assessment, which is what the (West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission) and West Liberty University’s policies call the first-year assessment. It’s a review of his performance for the first year,” Lucas said. “Dr. Evans’ contract runs through Dec. 31, 2022, and then the board, we’re going through this assessment, which we hope will conclude by the end of June.”

After the university’s commencement on May 7, after which the board of governors will have time, with the assistance of the governance committee – consisting of select members of the board – to complete the assessment. Numerous surveys are in the process of being conducted, Lucas said, which will inform the decision of whether to renew Evans’ contract. The faculty senate, he added, conducted this survey on their own, which wasn’t problematic but did not represent an official probe by the board of governors.

Lucas said he had not read the results of the faculty senate’s survey.

“I’m sure, at some point, we’ll read it,” he said. “Where it goes from there, we’re really not sure, obviously. If the board deems it necessary or appropriate, we’ll hear from any constituents that we want.”

Lucas said Evans had been nothing less than professional and courteous during the assessment thus far.