Faculty Senate Report

Ani reported that Betsy Barnhart will not attend the FacEx meetings the rest of the semester. We need to replace her. Or, one of the current non-voting members could become a voting member.

Nate Brunsell gave a report. The COACHE small forums are finishing this week. Attendance has not been great, but those that show up provide feedback. Advisory team will do recommendations which should be ready by April. Next, we will meet with Provost mid-month in March. We will have an internal and external meeting.

We had Gen Ed meeting last week. This will affect the faculty, particularly with the core realignment. There are issues to be worked out, especially on the exception policy and that each class can only count toward one of our core goals. A class can be used toward two goals, and we do not have data, until a student graduates, which goal the class can be counted towards. There is uncertainty there.

Faculty Affairs has launched their committee on the non-tenure track issues. We met last week for an organizational meeting. They are starting with the Teaching Professors. They will expand to others to address promotion, representation in units, and other issues related to non-tenure track faculty.

They are kicking off the search for Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs, which Nate and Simon are co-chairing. The committee will be put together. Interviews will be in a month and a half. SenEx will meet with candidates.

Ani asked for feedback on the dean of Libraries search. She provided feedback, but she missed some interviews. Kristin said she skimmed the feedback document that Ani provided. Ani said she did not put much information into the feedback report.

Ani asked if there is anything happening with remote work? Nate said they are still soliciting nominations. Nate said he knows people heading in this direction and he will have names. Ani has a name she will send to Nate. Lou Mulligan will send names to Nate and Ani to consider.

University Senate Report

Ani said she wrote the community charter around what it means to be an exceptional learning community on the basis on the visioning we had. Ani showed what she created based on what was discussed at Shared Governance meeting with the campus community. Ani kept it sparse as a starting point. Ani talked with leadership, primarily the provost, about this. Ani will talk with the new Vice Chancellor for Public Affairs to see if this is being communicated properly. Is there a way to revise to make it more action based? We seek to be collaborative, centered on service and inclusion and provide more transparency. Ani would like to have a community discussion around the document. Ani thinks of this as an opportunity to communicate about shared governance and have a more collaborative discussion. Questions? Concerns? So much of shared governance is on education. There should be transparency around decisions and change.

Next was a discussion on the reorganization of University Senate. The current thinking is to take Faculty Senate down to eighteen reps each-- faculty, staff, and students. The current thinking is not everyone in Faculty Senate would have to attend University Senate. There might be pushback on academic policy. The current thinking is that they would come through Faculty Senate, after passed by University Senate, for a vote. The faculty would have oversight and ultimate approval. Nate thinks this is a good option. He asked for feedback.

Kristin asked are six of the eighteen faculty senators then FacEx? Would different senators be on SenEx and FacEx, logistically, how would this work/

Ani replied. Representation on SenEx would not change. FacEx would become part of SenEx. We should think of representation more broadly. If you are in FacEx, you are automatically in SenEx. It is a logistical question. We cannot act until the end of March.

Nate offered the opinion that FacEx should attend both just for helping shape the policy in the University.

The organization changes will happen next year.

Unfinished Business —

Elections. We have had seven nominations. We need two more:  Law School and Social Welfare. We will reach out to deans and those with expiring terms. We are extending deadline to next Wednesday. The ballot will go out after Spring Break.

Kristin said that more broadly, they need to learn about their new roles in Senate. Nate said we are talking about transitions and met with the provost. Last year, Nate had a one-hour discussion for his role, and he hopes the transition can be more extensive in the future.

The task is to solicit more nominations for Faculty Senate.