A former lecturer has come out in defence of Bermuda College president Duranda Greene in the wake of a vote of no confidence by faculty.

While a statement from the Faculty Association made a number of allegations against Dr Greene, the former lecturer said the real issue is that she wanted faculty to teach one additional class one semester a year.

“It looks to me like this is just a personal attack on her because she was making an effort to make the faculty a bit more responsible,” he said. “She has more integrity than everyone I have ever known. She does everything based on facts and logic.”

On Friday, the Faculty Association — made up of professors, senior lecturers, lecturers and faculty tutors at the institution — listed a host of complaints against Dr Greene including a lack of leadership, diversion of resources away from the mission of the institution, a sense of entitlement, lack of awareness of the realities of the classroom, failure to engage in meaningful communication and failure to take responsibility for the “dismal institutional climate.”

Both Dr Greene and the Chairwoman of the school’s board, Jill Husbands, said they were surprised by the statement.

Speaking out yesterday a former lecturer, who asked not to be identified, said faculty at the institution spend around 15 hours a week working directly with students but can earn more than $100,000 a year.

He said they can also increase their pay by getting further qualifications.

He said that Dr Greene had attempted to have the faculty teach one additional class, one semester a year, but the faculty had balked and the matter was taken to arbitration.

The lecturer said he believed the vote came about because the faculty had lost that arbitration.

“I have heard complaints against her before, but the complaints have no merit,” he said.

“This is just a very unfortunate attack on her with no specifics and no substance.

“Some of the faculty just don’t want to be held accountable. Bermuda College is a fine institution, and Dr Greene has done much to move it forward during her administration like getting the college accredited.”

He also said that lecturers at the school are outnumbered by staff, and it’s difficult to say how many members of the faculty actually took part in the secret ballot.

The original statement from the Faculty Association stated that the “overwhelming majority” of the members — 93.75 per cent — had been in favour of the vote of no confidence.

Efforts to contact the Faculty Association about the former lecturer’s comments were unsuccessful as of press time last night, however a faculty member said last night that the meeting was “very well attended”.

She also denied the suggestion that the addition of an extra class had been the cause of the dispute, saying that matter had been resolved.