The College of DuPage has been in the news this past week due to the recent vote of no confidence in President Breuder by the full-time faculty. This is a big deal, as it is the first time this has happened in the history of the school. We’ve been paying pretty close attention to it here at The Courier, both because it is our job, and because we’ve grown more and more fascinated with the current state of our lovely school’s politics.

For those of you just tuning in, starting just before graduation last year and continuing to the present, we’ve witnessed a series of events reminiscent of an extremely boring episode of “Game of Thrones.” Sketchy emails have been leaked, an article by a local conservative watchdog was run by Forbes online, and in the words of Breuder, a “rogue trustee” is running amok on the board of trustees. The faculty have largely remained silent: watching, waiting, biding their time.

That is, until last week. They finally showed up to the fight, and with this vote they have done what exactly?

While we recognize the gravity of a faculty union having no confidence in the president of the school, we also question the impact of such a vote independent of a proposed solution. The board of trustees were notified about the union’s lack of confidence, but faculty President Glenn Hansen couldn’t tell us exactly what he hoped the vote would accomplish. One might assume that, having expressed a lack of confidence in a leader, an organization might at the very least call for his replacement. Hansen wouldn’t explicitly do that, reiterating that the no confidence vote was the strongest move the union could make. When we break it down, though, the move doesn’t seem strong at all.

The board of trustees, who have the actual power over Breuder’s future at the college, is largely on his side in all of this. While loud voices like Trustee Kathy Hamilton’s are fiercely critical, the majority seem to be firmly in the president’s camp. Looking forward, any political consequences for the trustees up for reelection assume a candidate would run on a pro-union, anti-Breuder platform, which seems very unlikely. The administration itself immediately downplayed the importance of this vote, citing the fact that the full-time faculty only represents 10 percent of the college’s employees. In fact, the entire response from Breuder’s camp can be summed up in two words: “So what?”

The union’s vote is a big deal, but it comes late in a game that is already crowded. Simply stating more grievances without making any strong statements as to the desired way of addressing them simply muddles the conversation more. We need clarity. We hear that you don’t have confidence in Breuder; now tell us what you want done about it.

Looking forward, it seems like it is only going to get louder. The board meeting on Sept. 25 promises to be another firecracker, and it would not be surprising if the faculty’s desires once again got lost in the mix. Their voice is an incredibly important one. A $30 million dollar teaching and learning center is useless without quality instructors to actually teach in it. It is disgusting that the administration would so readily dismiss such a concerning vote, but is also disappointing that the faculty union leaders have allowed themselves to be dismissed thus far. “We don’t like you,” they’ve said. “What’re you going to do about it?” has been the response. What indeed.