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March 4, 2005 > News > New faculty Senate approved

New faculty Senate approved

By Amber Obermeyer | Thresher Editorial Staff

Beginning in the fall, a new governing body will approve changes to the curriculum and to degree requirements on behalf of the full faculty. In a unanimous vote Monday, about 150 faculty members finalized the plan, which will create a 30-person Faculty Senate of elected representatives.

Currently, changes to curriculum, working conditions and academic standards must first come before the Faculty Council, a group of 16 tenured or tenure-track elected representatives, and then the full faculty. The new system will eliminate most full-faculty votes and meetings.

“Faculty governance will be more efficient, and decisions we make will be more representative of the will of the faculty as a whole,” Speaker of the Faculty Lynne Huffer said. “There will be a greater sense of accountability to a specific body.”

Faculty Council will continue to govern for the remainder of the academic year, Huffer, a French professor, said. Faculty Senate elections will take place before May 1, and the senate will draft its constitution and by-laws during the summer so it can be fully functional for the fall semester.

Senate members will serve three-year terms, with one-third of the body elected each year. Faculty Council has not yet decided how to phase in the staggered elections, but the senate will begin the 2005-‘06 academic year with 30 members, Huffer said.

Although only senate members will have voting privileges, the senate will hold open meetings that all faculty members may attend.

The senate proposal was drafted by a task force formed by Faculty Council in May to address inefficiency and a lack of confidence in the current system of faculty governance. The full faculty first discussed the proposal at a Jan. 26 meeting, where some faculty members voiced their disapproval, saying the faculty is a small enough body that it should function as a direct democracy.

Under the current system, the faculty votes twice on major proposals, with a simple majority required in each vote. In a full faculty meeting Feb. 2, about 95 percent of the 180 faculty members present voted in favor of the proposal. The second vote, taken at Monday’s faculty meeting, was unanimous.

History Department Chair Carl Caldwell, a member of the task force, said he and other members met with representatives of each department to explain the proposal and answer any questions.

“We presented our proposal to them and tried to talk the whole thing through and explain the logic of the changes — I think that made a big difference,” Caldwell said. “It helped people see that it wasn’t a grab for power but an attempt to make governance more rational.”

Caldwell said the high turnout Monday and at the Feb. 2 meeting indicates widespread support for the proposal.

“At the first vote, we had the largest turnout that I’ve ever seen — a lot of professors that I’ve never seen before were there,” Caldwell said. “After that vote, it was clear that there was an overwhelming consensus in favor of change, and the second vote merely ratified it.”

Attendance at both meetings was higher than usual, he said. About 45 people attended the November faculty meeting.

The senate will include one representative from the School of Architecture, one from the Shepherd School of Music and one from the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management, whereas Faculty Council includes only one representative from all three schools. The Faculty Senate also will include two non-tenure-track faculty members, who comprise about 10 percent of the 533-member full-time faculty — as well as about 85 percent of the 113 part-time faculty members — but are not represented on Faculty Council.

“The Faculty Senate ensures [minority groups] of representation in a systematic way,” Huffer said. “That’s true of Architecture, the Shepherd School, the Jones School and non-tenure track faculty — they’re a really important group that often feels very disenfranchised.”

The faculty also approved a change to the composition of the Promotion and Tenure Committee, which now consists of the eight members of Faculty Council who also serve on University Council. When the faculty votes on its 2005-‘06 representatives this spring, members of the Promotion and Tenure Committee will be elected separately from Faculty Senate representatives.

The new Promotion and Tenure Committee will include one representative each from the Wiess School of Natural Sciences, the George R. Brown School of Engineering, the School of Humanities, the School of Social Sciences and the Jones School, each of whom will serve three-year terms. The School of Architecture and the Shepherd School will together elect one representative, who will also serve for three years. The provost can appoint up to two additional members from any school, who would serve for one year.

“For Promotion and Tenure, it’s important to have someone from either Architecture or Music on the committee who has an understanding of those fields,” Huffer said.

Some current members of the Promotion and Tenure Committee will remain on the committee to ensure continuity in its decisions, Huffer said.

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