We were provided the text of the September 6, 2006 statement of the faculty and staff.

Dear ISM Community,

This afternoon 219 members of the ISM faculty and staff passed a motion which voted to continue their current action and not report to work tomorrow, Thursday, September 7. We support the Leadership Team's actions which request all Board members' resignations by 8 pm Wednesday, September 06. Should these resignations be received we intend to report to work. If not, we plan to meet again on Thursday, September 7, to reassess future action.

It is with profound regret that we announce this action. The current circumstances with the Board's actions have dictated this turn of events. We would like to restate our declaration that we have no confidence in this Board.

We voice our total support for the Leadership Team's stance of no confidence in the Board.

We reiterate that we fully understand the implications of this action for student learning in the short term, but firmly believe that it serves the best interests of our students in the long term. We feel that continuing to teach and learn in the current climate is not a viable option.

This afternoon, the Board, through Steve Dare, asked us to meet today. This offer was declined until we had the opportunity to meet as a collective group. We stated our position that we did not want to speak to any of the Board members until a consensus among us had been reached. Despite this clear message, two members of the Board took it upon themselves to attempt entry to our meeting.

It was decided overwhelmingly by the faculty and staff that we would not consider any meeting with the Board at this time. We believe that their current inability to provide adequate governance negated the need for such a meeting.

As much as we regret the need to take this action, we hope that will only assist our community in reaching a speedy resolution to the current crisis and herald a fresh start for all.

Again, we avow the central importance of the students in our work.

Sincerely,

Concerned Faculty and Staff