The Faculty Senate of Saint Louis University has crushingly voted against the leadership president Rev. Lawrence Biondi.

The majority of the faculty agreed that Biondi must go.The 51-4 no confidence vote backed the resolution to remove Biondi from his post. He led the university for 25 years.

As St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports, the turmoil in the campus peaked as early as in August concerning the proposal to change the school tenure rules. The faculty wanted Manor Patankar, the school's vice-president of academic affairs, who suggested these changes to be removed, a request which was not fulfilled by Rev. Biondi.

In response, the faculty was furious over Biondi for not removing Patankar and says that the proposal is one among several instances that shows the administration is not including them while making key decision regarding the school.

Some of the faculty members are of the opinion that Biondi has failed in providing a capable leadership and due to his actions, the university is suffering in national rankings and growth of its endowment is stunted.

Biondi who answers to the board of trustees has not responded to the vote of no-confidence, but a spokesperson for the university Clayton Berry has called the vote 'unjustified':

"The fact is, during the past 25 years, Father Biondi has led SLU through a remarkable era of progress, improving academics, increasing the size and quality of the student body, transforming the campus, and enhancing SLU's national and international reputation," Berry said in the statement.

He also said that the administrators have formed a committee to address the concerns of the faculty and the board of trustees has earlier expressed confidence in both Patankar and Biondi.

Earlier in the day, a crowd of some 200 protesters, mostly students, rallied against Biondi and Patankar chanting 'SLU minus two' during a brief protest.

"At the beginning of his time, he did fantastic things for the university. The campus is beautiful. That's all Biondi," said Patricia Libby, a pre-law student from Belleville. "But there's too much focus on things that aren't academically pertinent."

Even many of Biondi's supporters in the faculty voted against him saying it was best for the university and Biondi himself.