Dear colleagues,
This is a longer update as we head into the break. It contains a summary of December’s Faculty Senate meeting, as well as more general updates on ongoing work and concerns.
The third full meeting of the Faculty Senate was on 12/7/2023. Full text of reports can be found on the agenda, including written reports not summarized here: Planning and Budgeting (unit adjustments), and our Legislative Representatives (public records).
New business and discussion included:
- Chair’s Remarks. Chair Dougherty acknowledged ongoing distress related to war abroad and campus shootings in the US. She updated faculty on the possible implementation of the Okanagan Charter for healthy universities, and participating in events run by PEN America touching on free speech protections. The Faculty Council for Faculty Affairs will launch a survey in the Winter on faculty well being.
- President’s Remarks. President Cauce addressed the Senate in the midst of a student-led pro-Palestinian occupation of Gerberding Hall, the administrative building on the Seattle campus. She expressed support for free speech, and condemned religious discrimination. Task forces on Islamophobia and antisemitism are being charged, and there will be a series of events on Israel-Palestine sponsored by her office starting in Winter. The President invites faculty to inform her about anyone who is experiencing identity- or viewpoint-based harassment.
- Oral report from our inaugural faculty Regent, Professor Alexes Harris, who shared her first impressions and invited faculty to attend Board of Regents meetings, especially the quarterly DEI Committee meetings, which she chairs. Slides are in the agenda, p. 10-19.
- Finance transformation report by Chief of Staff Margaret Shepherd, presented by Vice Provost Sarah Hall. Senators asked many questions about FT’s impact on research, and slides are attached.
- Update from Vice Provost Fred Nafukho on plans to use Interfolio’s Review, Promotion and Tenure (RPT) module, and the Office of Academic Personnel website redesign. On the latter, VP Nafukho has asked for faculty input via this survey; please take a moment to complete.
Other ongoing work includes:
Newly-charged working groups, continuing the Provost’s Future of Teaching and Learning Initiative. The feedback form is still open—please share your thoughts. AI continues to be a hot topic: this article on AI in the classroom gives a practical list of assignment examples, including links to suggestions for those who may not want to work with AI.
For updates on preventing or addressing sexual violence, including the Title IX office which has a new reporting form, see the President’s recent message. The UW also offers confidential advocates, SafeCampus, and training tools.
The newly-formed Disability Staff and Faculty Association provides support and community for disabled employees and allies. For our disabled students, as we prepare course materials for Winter, here are resources—many of them easy to implement—for designing with accessibility in mind.
Lastly, it feels wrong not to acknowledge the extreme horrors in Israel Palestine, and their impacts on campus. Senate leadership cannot express a particular viewpoint on behalf of the faculty. But we will work with administration to support the ability to share expertise without retaliation. Shared governance is as effective as the faculty makes it. Now is the time to lean into working relations and shared trust—for those who can, of course. We are so grateful to our colleagues in Senate, in Councils and Committees, and beyond, who are doing this engine-room work. And as always – in fact more than ever – we welcome your engagement. Your Senator can be found on the roster, and I hold Office Hours.
The next full Faculty Senate meeting is Feb. 8, 2024. I’ll try to write mid-January with what’s in the pipeline, and of course shortly after the meeting. In the meantime, I hope we can all find at least a few days’ rest over the break. As Chair Dougherty reminded us, quoting the Surgeon General, “pausing is what sustains the heart.”
Sincerely,
Louisa Mackenzie, Vice Chair, Faculty Senate
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Louisa Mackenzie (they/she)
Associate Professor, Comparative History of Ideas
Vice Chair, Faculty Senate University of Washington, Seattle
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All correspondence to/from this address constitutes a public record per R.C.W. 42.56.