MACHIAS – Despite a Wednesday faculty vote of no confidence in the University of Maine System chancellor and trustees, University of Maine at Machias faculty and staff have decided, nearly unanimously, that they will support the strategic plan once it is in place.

After a two-hour meeting Friday afternoon, faculty and staff voted 49-0, with two abstentions, to participate in the implementation of the strategic plan.

The Wednesday faculty vote of no confidence passed 21-11, with two abstentions.

“There were several of us who spoke up to say that we saw no contradiction between this vote and the vote of no confidence on Wednesday,” Ron Mosley, a UMM professor and head of the UMS faculty union, said Friday.

According to Cindy Huggins, UMM vice president for academic affairs, the faculty and staff believe that it is in the best interest of the university to participate in the strategic plan’s implementation, despite continuing concerns.

“They don’t feel that the chancellor and the board of trustees know and understand our university very well,” Huggins said.

Some faculty and staff members also believe that individual universities were not allowed to comment on what was a “top-down process,” Huggins said.

Though concerns linger, Mosley said that UMM faculty and staff would do much more than comply grudgingly with the strategic plan once it has become a reality.

“We decided we’re going to do the best we can on it,” he said.

Huggins said that although it was an effort to maneuver through many different points of view during the meeting, the work was well worth it.

“I can tell you that the meeting ended with a sense of optimism and a sense of unity that the campus hadn’t felt for a few days,” Huggins said.