Dear Colleagues,
Our April Senate meeting on the 4th went into a continuation meeting, held on the 11th. The continuation meeting adjourned with some business still unfinished. We’ve been busy!
This is a report on both April meetings. As always, full text of remarks and reports can be found on the agenda. Items 10g and 10h are unfinished at the time of writing.
New business and discussion in Senate:
Senate Chair’s and UW President’s Remarks: Chair Dougherty announced listening sessions for each campus concerning safety; a webinar on academic freedom in the classroom; and a survey on wellbeing. Please look for forthcoming e-mail announcements for all. President Cauce spoke on the horror of the escalating crisis in Gaza, and on a volatile climate on campus where some are being personally targeted. She commended the members of the recently-formed task forces on Islamophobia and antisemitism for working in dialogue on their extremely difficult charges.
Adjudication Panel – Request from the Secretary of the Faculty: Mike Townsend noted the urgent need for more faculty to serve on the Faculty Adjudication Panel. Open to voting faculty, and emeritus faculty who had voting status on retirement. Please e-mail Joey Burgess (jmbg@uw) if interested.
Faculty Retention Data: Marjorie Olmstead, AVP for Academic Personnel, presented centrally-held data on (completed) retention offers, including some demographics. Slides are in the agenda. We are grateful for this move towards transparency, which we also hope to support with the Class A legislation described below.
Faculty Legislative and Deputy Legislative Representative (FLR and FDLR) Candidate Presentations / Vice Chair Election Second Round: Senators heard presentations from four excellent colleagues running for election to represent us in Olympia–and to represent Olympia to us. Their letters of interest are in the agenda. Thank you all for stepping up to create coalition around higher education in our state capital. Our Vice Chair elections are moving to a second round; with three very strong candidates, there was no initial majority. Senators, please remember to vote for all three by Friday April 12th (look for “election” in e-mail subject).
Class A legislation – Transparency in Retention Raises. Senators gave first consideration to proposed legislation that would require informing all faculty in a unit of a proposed retention offer, and remove the option for a unit to follow an alternate policy. There was robust debate about this latter change, and an amendment was passed that would keep in place the right to alternate policies. Proposed language requiring deans to submit all data on retention requests (not just successful ones) was maintained.
- Class A Legislation – Expanding Candidates’ Rights in the Promotion Process. Senators gave first consideration to proposed legislation that would significantly increase candidates’ rights to see documents gathered for their promotion files, and that makes more transparent the existing role of the Provost as granted by the Regents. One amendment was passed; the legislation as a whole enjoyed great support.
- Class A Legislation – Voting Timelines. This is a non-controversial change to the Code that helps steer legislation through the pipeline by June 15th each year, and exempts breaks from voting timelines.
Class B Legislation (4/11 continuation meeting) – Registration Priority: Senators discussed proposed Class B legislation to address course registration bottlenecks in Period 1. The legislation passed with a major amendment and will be reviewed by the President (UPDATE: the legislation was disapproved by the President).
Other updates:
Recruitment: As well as the need for Adjudication Panel volunteers, we always welcome hearing from colleagues interested in serving on our councils, which are the engine rooms of shared governance and a chance to help change policies. Diverse backgrounds, disciplines, and views are welcome and necessary. Please contact Joey Burgess if you are interested.
Event recordings: The Faculty Council on Research held a hybrid workshop on holistic mentoring, and the Faculty Council on Race, Equity and Justice hosted a webinar with Dr. Randall Kennedy who presented his arguments against required DEI statements. Huge thanks to our hardworking councils for their impact, responsiveness, and outreach.
The next regular Faculty Senate meeting is May 2, 2024. Please do engage your Senator and our Councils on issues that matter to you. I also hold Office Hours. In the meantime, I hope the quarter has started off as well as possible.
Sincerely,
Louisa Mackenzie, Vice Chair, Faculty Senate