Central Faculty Governance Newsletter

SACUA News

Over the past few weeks, SACUA has continued to follow up in areas of faculty interest from the motions passed at the faculty senate meeting. Please click here to access an update on motion follow-up activities. SACUA has formed a working group along with charges to address sexual and gender-based misconduct policy. A faculty group has met with Provost Collins and representatives from Work Connections, Academic HR, Finance, and the Equity, Civil Rights, and Title IX (ECRT) Office to talk about instructional accommodations related to COVID. A summary of information can be found here. SACUA has formed a working group to continue to explore areas of improvement to Work Connections' processes/procedures as well as its orientation to focus on wellness.

Given the interest of looking at non-tenure track faculty representation, SACUA discussed and voted to request the Lecturers' Employee Organization (LEO) to prepare a report for SACUA with information that would help SACUA and the Rules, Practices, and Policies (RPP) Senate Assembly Committee to further discuss and make recommendations on their potential representation in central faculty governance. The Clinical Faculty Working Group is working to provide information to SACUA and the RPP committee for the same purpose.

SACUA reviewed and provided feedback on a draft copy of Electronic and Information Technology (EIT) Accessibility SPG brought to us by the Provost's Office and ECRT. The primary goal of the EIT Accessibility SPG is to promote a common set of guidelines around EIT accessibility for the campus community.

Senate Assembly News

Senate Assembly Meeting Summary

At the November SA meeting, Dean Hurn shared updates on the work of the Culture Journey Working Group. The goal of this group is to identify values for our university. The group has received and analyzed value statements from 27 schools, colleges, and units. Word clouds were generated with top keywords of Inclusion, Diversity, Excellence, and Equity. Phase 2 of gathering and analyzing evidence will begin via feedback information sessions and townhalls. SA had a great discussion on the topic and raised a number of things for the working group to consider, including definition of value terms, that values can conflict with one another depending on context, and defining the metrics of success.

Tami Strickman, Director of ECRT, and many ECRT staff also visited our SA meeting. ECRT is using a new software system call i-Sight to keep track of cases and investigations. The use of this software allows tracking of cases to identify potential patterns of misconduct. We had breakout rooms with ECRT staff (associate directors, investigators, and equity and outcome specialists) with the goal to learn more about ECRT's operations. Questions were raised regarding how cases are handled when multiple complaints against a single individual are received. In an investigation, both the complainant and the respondent share their stories, and both have the opportunity to see the preliminary report. Both can have support persons present. There are different resolutions available without going to formal investigation. A major part of ECRT's effort concerns prevention of misconduct. Concerns were raised that a majority of ECRT staff are lawyers, which does not leverage expertise of faculty on campus. The issue of ECRT reporting to the president was also shared as not having a meaningful change from the previous Office of Institutional Equity (OIE) structure.

SA looking ahead: President Schlissel and some members of the Provost Selection and Appointment Advisory Group will visit SA in December to seek input on the provost search. We will also be hearing from SA committee chairs on ongoing activities, and we will provide feedback on the work of SA committees.

Faculty Senate News