Faculty and coaches vote no confidence in Commonwealth University president

Commonwealth University faculty and coaches voted overwhelmingly this week to approve a no- confidence measure against their president, Bashar Hanna, citing concerns about his leadership, declining enrollment, budget woes, and a lawsuit verdict.

The vote, which was open to about 700 faculty and coaches, with 406 approving the measure and 52 opposing it, follows a jury verdict last year that found a dean who helped an employee file a sexual harassment complaint against Hanna had been wrongfully terminated. A federal court jury in August awarded $4 million to Jeffrey Krug, former business school dean at Bloomsburg University, who said in a 2018 whistleblower lawsuit he was mistreated and ultimately fired that year for assisting Hanna’s executive assistant in filing the complaint.

Bloomsburg is now part of Commonwealth, which was formed when Bloomsburg, Mansfield, and Lock Haven Universities were merged in 2022. Hanna had led Bloomsburg for five years before taking the helm at Commonwealth, one of 10 state universities governed by the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education.

» READ MORE: Commonwealth University president should resign or be fired over wrongful termination suit, faculty union leader says

While a vote of no confidence can send a powerful message, it is largely symbolic and has no ability to authorize change. Still, 88.6% of those who voted approved the measure.

“We do not have the authority to fire someone, but that’s not to say there is no power there,” said Kenneth M. Mash, president of the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties, which represents about 5,000 faculty and coaches in the system. “When people speak together, it matters.”

The vote via electronic, anonymous ballot was held Tuesday and Wednesday and open to faculty and coaches at the three campuses of Lock Haven, Bloomsburg, and Mansfield.

“The results are kind of as expected,” Mash said. “The overwhelming majority of faculty and coaches don’t have confidence in his leadership. The students, the faculty, the staff, the entire university community deserve better.”

Hanna, in a statement, acknowledged the vote “as both an important expression of [faculty and coaches’] frustrations and, more importantly, as a reflection of their commitment to our students and their success.”

But he said he had “no intention of stepping away.”

“I believe in our mission and am inspired by the incredible potential of our university,” he said, noting the challenges of merging the three campuses and adding, “I am hopeful that we have weathered the worst of the storm.”

He said first-time, full-time enrollment and graduate enrollment have increased since integration. Hanna also cited “record-breaking fundraising,” state debt relief of $38 million for the Mansfield campus, and new shared governance and financial aid models achieved during his tenure.

Council of Trustees chair John Wetzel, also in a statement, said the council “overwhelmingly remains in support” of Hanna, who earns $425,080 annually and whose contract runs through June 2028.

PASSHE noted in an updated statement Thursday afternoon that the board of governors is responsible for providing oversight of each university president and has metrics in place for that.

“Information from sources such as a faculty union poll would be included along with other inputs and data,” the system said.

It’s the first time in more than a decade that the union has taken a no-confidence vote in a president. Mash said if no action is taken, the union may proceed with a no-confidence vote against Commonwealth’s council of trustees. It’s possible a vote by faculty and coaches throughout the system on PASSHE’s board of governors could come next, as well as reaching out to the legislature and the governor, Mash said.

Student journalists in a December editorial also called for Hanna to step down.

“Hanna has failed to connect Bloomsburg, Lock Haven and Mansfield beyond sharing a name no one wanted and some new signage across campuses,” the editorial said. “CU cannot thrive on a fractured foundation.”

In November, Mash called on Hanna to resign or be fired and warned then that if no action was taken, no-confidence votes would follow.

“I cannot find anyone who can explain to me how it makes sense that someone who has been liable for wrongful termination of a mandated reporter could remain the university’s final arbiter in sexual-harassment cases and other disciplinary cases,” Mash said at the time. “How does anyone expect students, faculty, and staff to feel comfortable at that university? It is farcical.”

» READ MORE: A former Bloomsburg University dean wins $4 million in a whistleblower suit against the school’s president

He also said Commonwealth had not thrived under Hanna’s leadership but, rather, suffered “budget woes, declining enrollment, hiring issues, major technical failures, various leadership crises, and sinking morale.”

When Commonwealth was formed in 2022, enrollment stood at 12,093. This fall, it was 11,103, according to PASSHE records. Mash said in November that the university’s projected deficit for 2024-25 was $13.8 million, according to the union’s information, and that the school had problems with campus management systems and the maintenance of classroom technology. There also had been turnover among top leadership, he said.

» READ MORE: Bloomsburg University president, accused of sexual harassment, was previously forced out of two jobs

A 2019 Inquirer investigation found that Hanna also had been quietly pushed out of two other jobs after being accused of mistreating employees, women in particular. The state system has continued to defend Hanna, who asserted at the time that he left Kutztown University — another school in the state system — and Delaware Valley University because of disputes over leadership style, not misconduct.

At Bloomsburg, his executive assistant alleged that Hanna engaged in inappropriate and unwanted behavior — calling her “dear,” rubbing her shoulder, and kissing her on the forehead behind his closed office door. Hanna also was accused of sliding the tip of his toe against her shin. She told PASSHE investigators she started to sit outside his reach.

PASSHE, after investigating the woman’s claims, found that Hanna’s behavior was “clearly inappropriate” but not “sexual in nature.” In a settlement with the woman, the school and PASSHE agreed to pay $40,000 for her attorney’s fees and to cover her tuition if she left the university before finishing her degree.

After he assisted the woman, Krug said, his office was searched and his email read. Rumors about his personal life began to swirl on campus. Krug said he believed school officials were trying to ruin his credibility and filed his own internal complaint. Soon afterward, he learned he was under investigation by the school.

The university accused Krug of violating policy by disclosing the sexual harassment allegations to others, including two donors. Because Hanna’s assistant, who was 42 at the time, also was a part-time student, the disclosure was deemed to have violated federal law protecting the privacy of student records.

A law firm hired by PASSHE to investigate found Krug culpable, and he was fired.

In answering Krug’s suit, the university denied his description of events and defended Hanna, maintaining that he “has never inflicted ‘severe and long-lasting mental damage’ to anyone he ‘interacted with,’” as accused in an anonymous email included as an exhibit in Krug’s suit.

Hanna, in a 2019 Inquirer interview, responded to the allegations at the three universities: “Every one of us has detractors. Every one of us has critics. When you are engaged in being a transformational change agent, some people who have done some things the way they have done them for 50 years might not like the direction we’re going.”

When the jury verdict was announced in favor of Krug, his lawyer, Barry Dyller, said he hoped the verdict would “send a message far and wide — retaliation is unacceptable, and there can be severe consequences.”