FRPR Committee FY2022 Final Report

FRPR made progress on several of the charges given to the committee for the 2021-2022 academic year.

The committee met five times (three times in Fall 2021 and twice in Spring 2022) to discuss the charges and to discuss additional items that we had been asked by Faculty Senate President Rémy Lequesne to consider as a committee. 

In Fall 2021, we contributed to the Faculty Workload Policy with the VP of Faculty Development, Chris Brown, Fac. Sen. President Rémy Lequesne, and SPPT committee chair Brad Cokelet.

Our committee also contributed feedback to the revised Excused Absences Policy, After this policy had been revised by Professor of Engineering Susan Williams, in consultation with Susan Klusmeier, VP for Academic Success, our committee made gave feedback on the policy and shared it with the Faculty Senate Executive Committee.  FacEx made further revisions to the policy, incorporating our committee’s input.

In Spring 2022, prompted by the efforts of the African American Policy Forum and by what we perceived to be an effort among legislators in Kansas and across the country to limit the freedom of teachers to teach about certain topics, such as Critical Race Theory, we drafted the Resolution on Freedom of Expression and Academic Freedom in Teaching that was approved by the Faculty Senate Executive Committee and submitted to the Provost and Chancellor, after the required comment period.

Recommendations for the 2022-2023 FRPR Committee/Possible Charges

  1. Continue to work with Fac Ex on revisions to the Excused Absence Policy
  2. Continue to push for response from KU administrators to the Resolution on Freedom of Expression and Academic Freedom in Teaching, and monitor encroachments upon academic freedom and freedom of speech from legislators and others external to the University.
  3. Continue to monitor and contribute to discussions concerning the discontinuance of programs, making sure that the process follows procedures laid out in policies and adheres to the rules for shared governance.
  4. Explore the policies for faculty plagiarism of colleagues’ syllabi and other teaching materials.  This is inspired by an inquiry from a colleague, who found information in USRR Section 6 regarding plagiarism and use of materials without attribution, but nothing pertaining specifically to syllabi.
  5. Assist FacEx and SPPT with the proposal made in Spring 2022 by Chris Brown, VP for Faculty Development, to develop guidelines for including and accounting for work in the areas of service, DEIB initiatives, community-engaged scholarship, and entrepreneurship in the promotion and tenure process.

Attachments

  1. Resolution on Freedom of Expression and Academic Freedom in Teaching, draft dated March 30, 2022. Submitted to FacEx on April 1, 2022.

 

Respectfully Submitted by Committee Chair Emma Scioli (Associate Professor of Classics)