SUNY-ESF’s faculty union has overwhelmingly voted to recommend President Quentin Wheeler’s contract not be renewed, the union’s president said in an email obtained by The Daily Orange on Thursday.

The vote, conducted by United University Professions, comes after months of renewed tensions between SUNY-ESF faculty and administrators. UUP’s SUNY-ESF chapter members called the vote soon after the college abruptly removed three long-standing faculty department chairs in January.

Of the 177 union members who cast ballots, 85 percent voted to recommend Wheeler’s contract be terminated.

“Now it is clear and unmistakable that an overwhelming majority of UUP members at ESF have no confidence in President Wheeler and believe his contract should be non-renewed,” said Frederick Kowal, UUP’s president, in the email.

Academic Governance, SUNY-ESF’s governing body, voted no confidence in Wheeler’s leadership in 2016. Public tensions simmered until Dec. 2017, when AG passed a resolution expressing concern that faculty were left out of certain university decisions, among other things.

Kowal, in his Thursday email to UUP members, also said that more than 90 percent of respondents voted for an investigation of the SUNY-ESF’s financial situation and an evaluation of campus administrators.

The college faces an ongoing budget deficit and a reduction in state aid. In a February Board of Trustees meeting, SUNY-ESF Vice President for Administration Joseph Rufo said the university’s unrestricted reserve funds could be depleted within 18 months if SUNY-ESF doesn’t make changes to spending and income.