"Provost [Janel] Curry was provided with a copy of a letter from the Senate when they met with her a few hours before the faculty meeting," Gordon College Vice President of Communications Rick Sweeney said in an email to the school paper. "They were not open to further discussion on their decision, which they announced to their faculty colleagues at the end of the regular monthly meeting late Wednesday afternoon."

The faculty senate, which is an elected group of faculty members who deal with promotions, disciplinary measures and other issues, also included chemistry department chair Irvin Levy, art department chair Bruce Herman, psychology professor Bryan Auday, biblical studies professor Steven Hunt, computer science professor Jonathan Senning and political science professor Timothy Sherratt.

"In their verbal statement to faculty colleagues, the chairperson affirmed the authority and decision-making role of the administration but said she felt the senators could not reconcile divergent views on the process and could no longer be effective in their roles," Sweeney added. "Their statement did not reference any specific decision or faculty member."

Although no specific decision or faculty member was cited in the resignation letter,

The Boston Globe and The Salem News report that the friction between the administration and faculty senate members began last month after assistant sociology professor Margaret DeWeese-Boyd filed a complaint to the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination against the school.

DeWeese-Boyd alleges that the college's president, Michael Lindsay, and Provost Curry didn't promote her to the status of full professor because she has been a vocal critic of the school's policy prohibiting students and staff from engaging in homosexual activity.

DeWeese-Boyd has not only spoken out against the school's policy but has also organized events to call for the "safety and inclusion" of LGBT students and staff at Gordon College.

Although the faculty senate had unanimously approved the assistant professor's promotion to full professor, The Boston Globe reports that Lindsay and Curry denied the promotion in February.

According to the Tartan, the senators' resignation letter stated that they felt Curry and Lindsay were not respectfully upholding the guidelines concerning the promotion of faculty as laid out in the school's administrative handbook.

"The Senate believes that the administration does not feel bound to the handbook in a way that everyone thought they were," an unnamed Gordon College professor who attended the meeting told the Tartan. "So it's a little bit, at least from the senate's perspective, it's a little bit like a professor saying, 'Well, I don't really feel bound by the syllabus, so I'm going to assign grades in this class based on criteria and I'm not going to tell you what they are.'"

According to The Tartan, Curry told the faculty after the meeting that "my perspective and interpretation of the situation is very different than theirs and I will need some time to explore how we bridge the gap in perspectives."

According to The Boston Globe, Sweeney explained in a statement that the college has a "strong and pointed disagreement" about the allegations that DeWeese-Boyd made in her complaint to the state agency. However, he offered no further comment about what the disagreement is because it's a "personal issue."