Faculty meeting Friday April19, 2013

As the meeting started President Kopp sat at a table with a full glass of water in front of him, Kopp was calmly but frequently sipping from his glass. We are in this together is a phrase President Kopp repeated more than once during the faculty meeting Friday at the Newman Center on the Marshall University campus. The Marshall University president wanted everyone to know that he was willing to try his hardest to make right of a situation that many have said he put himself and the university in.

 President Kopp was allowed ten minutes to speak as the meeting began and one of the first statements he made was “we need to come together and decide how we are going to manage our affairs.” This statement stood out since their will be a vote of ‘no confidence’ no later than May 1 and if 70 percent of faculty vote ‘no confidence’ Kopp will no longer be the president of the University. President Kopp didn’t look like a man who was close to losing his job, he took his time with his answers and didn’t panic.

The meeting lasted for 3 hours with faculty members asking questions to president Kopp up until the very end of the meeting. Faculty members showed no fear of Kopp and didn’t back down when asking him questions. Whether or not president Kopp will be voted out or remain Marshall University president remains to be seen, but both sides had their chance to voice their opinions and state facts with neither side willing to budge or give up ground.

It was 1:56pm as the meeting concluded, president Kopp sat with the same glass that was once full of water in front of him except now the glass was empty. Kopp had an opportunity to refill his glass from a nearby water bottle but instead he drank until it was empty, never once attempting to replenish what he had used.