NEW YORK — Conversations about university governance have transpired across the NYU community following a no-confidence vote in President John Sexton that Faculty of Arts and Science conducted in March. Since then, three more schools have passed a vote of no confidence, one has passed a vote of confidence and two have voted to hold a no-confidence vote.

The vote , which happened for the first time in NYU’s history, was passed 298 to 224 by the full-time tenured and tenure track FAS faculty who were eligible to cast a ballot. Forty-seven abstained from voting. Throughout the voting process, faculty raised concerns with transparency within the university, NYU’s expansion and issues surrounding workers’ rights and academic freedom in NYU Abu Dhabi.

Most discussions concerning the vote thereafter have taken place informally within departments and among FAS senators, said Jim Uleman, chair of FAS faculty senators.

He added that in April, a number of FAS senators met with a special committee of the Board of Trustees — a group that was recently created to meet and communicate with various groups about the university’s governance.

At the meeting, FAS senators were asked to submit a letter with recommendations on how to proceed. Uleman said the letter will likely be sent to the committee before the end of May.

“I have been at NYU on the faculty for over 40 years, and this is the first time I have met anyone on the [Board],” he said. “That was most faculty’s experience. So that’s good. Whether anything constructive will come of it is unclear.”

The vote has stirred movement outside FAS, NYU’s largest and oldest school. Faculty from Gallatin School of Individualized Study, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development and Tisch School of the Arts Asia have conducted and passed their own votes of no confidence in Sexton this month.

Full-time Gallatin faculty passed a vote of no confidence 23 to 21 with 6 abstentions earlier this month. In a statement, faculty pointed to the lack of faculty participation in decision-making processes, as well as communication between faculty and the university.

Full-time Tisch Asia faculty passed a no-confidence vote 19 to 1 with 2 abstentions last week. Full-time Steinhardt faculty also passed a no-confidence vote 117 to 45 with 22 abstentions last week.

Floyd Hammack, faculty council chair of Steinhardt, said proponents of the no-confidence vote mainly pointed to the lack of faculty participation in and support for NYU 2031 — the university’s plan to expand 6 million square feet to the New York campus by 2031.

“What will happen is not up to us,” Hammack said. “I hope this vote is effectively responded to and that we can get back to the work of the University.”

But some have declared their support for Sexton, including faculty of NYU School of Law who passed a vote of confidence last month 59 to 2 with 3 abstentions.

Faculty senator James Jacobs said NYU Law faculty overwhelmingly appreciate and praise Sexton’s leadership as the university president and former dean of NYU Law.

Jacobs said complex issues, such as expansion, have to be decided by the full-time administrators and that the Board of Trustees is an important overseer.

He added that while faculty participate in academic decision-making at the law school level, they assume the school dean, who meets with Sexton each week, will represent their interests at the university level.

“I think [President] Sexton is widely regarded as one of the preeminent university leaders in the world,” Jacobs said. “NYU’s improvement in the last decade is perhaps unprecedented in the history of higher education. It is so ironic that the beneficiaries of that boost in prestige and opportunity has led some faculty to be so unhappy.”

However, others continue to question faculty governance and Sexton’s leadership.

Full-time faculty of Tisch School of Arts passed a vote Saturday to conduct a vote of no confidence from March 13 to March 20. Though figures were not available at the time of press, faculty senator Awam Amkpa said the motion to hold a no-confidence vote was passed by a significant margin.

Last month, full-time faculty of Silver School of Social Work passed a vote to hold a no-confidence vote in Sexton 16 to 12 with 9 abstentions. The date of the vote has not been determined.

Wen-Jui Han, chair of Silver executive committee, said in addition to faculty governance, faculty is concerned with the lack of communication and transparency surrounding NYU expansion — particularly about its costs and benefits — and inadequate recognition from the university of the contribution professional schools have made to NYU.

“We are hoping by voicing faculty’s concerns, we can move forward together with the administration on a path with more open-honest communication, transparency and recognition from the NYU administration and the Board of Trustees,” Han said.

Uleman said he is glad to see faculties organizing themselves and taking a position — whether they express confidence in Sexton or not.

“Real faculty participation in the governance of NYU is long overdue,” Uleman said. “I hope the faculty’s new-found interest in formulating policies at NYU continues and is institutionalized in more effective ways than has been true in the past.”

NYU spokesman John Beckman said there is constant discourse among Sexton, the Board and the faculty, which has continued as the votes have occurred this semester.

He added that concerns some faculty have raised may be natural.

“NYU is changing very quickly, and it may be that the governance mechanisms we’ve had in place for many years are no longer as effective as they should be for taking account of faculty voice,” Beckman said. “Part of what’s going on is that John Sexton is an innovator, and change often elicits disagreement.”

But he said the Board of Trustees, which has the sole authority to decide the university's president, has reiterated its confidence in Sexton and his leadership this semester.

“Going forward, what will happen is that the regular work of the university — research and teaching and studying and learning — will continue on apace, and NYU will reconvene in the fall as a community with John as president to address some of the issues surfaced by this semester’s vote, principally faculty involvement and voice,” Beckman said.