Faculty Senate Minutes – November 8, 2016
• Call Meeting to Order
o Called to order 5:59
 A quorum is present
o Attendees
 Rachna Prakash, Patrick Alexander, Patrick Curtis, Brice Noonan, Esteban Urena-Benavides, Byunghyun Jang, Mark Van Boening, Lei Cao, Mary Hayes, Katie McKee, Peter Reed, Mark Walker, Andrew O’Reilly, Paul Loprinzi, Zachary Kagan Guthrie, Vivian Ibrahim, Alysia Burton Steele, Debora Wenger, Stacey Lantagne, Dennis Bunch, Eric Lambert, Christina Torbert, Vishal Gupta, Sumali Conlon, Amy Hsieh, Thomas Peattie, Meagen Rosenthal, James Bos, Lucien Cremaldi (alternate), Marilyn Mendolia, Chrisitan Sellar, Javier Boyas, Marcos Mendoza, Minjoo Oh, Roy Thurston, Rosemarry Oliphant-Ingham, William Sumrall, Rory Ledbetter, Derek Cowherd
o Absent
 Michelle Emanuel, Kris Belden-Adams, Zia Shariat-Madar, Randy Wadkins, Chris Mullen, Aileen Ajootian, Tossi Ikuta, Jarod Roll, Antonia Eliason, Debra Riley-Huff, Lifeng Yang, Sandra Spiroff, Tejas Pendya, Sara Wellman, Mary Roseman, Chalet Tan, Travis King, Ben Jones
• Approval of October 11, 2016 Minutes
o Approved – all in favor
• Request made by the chair for all senate members to outline which UM committees they serve on the attendance form
• Committee Reports
o Academic Instructional Affairs
 Nothing to report
o Academic Conduct
 Nothing to report
o Finance & Benefits
 Nothing to report
o Development & Planning
 Nothing to report
o Governance
 Nothing to report
o Research & Creative Achievement
 Nothing to report
o University Services
 Nothing to report
• Old Business
o Childcare Update
 Tony Ammeter is working on the hiring of a postdoc fellow/childcare fellow for 1-2 years to look into how to best implement a childcare program at UM.
• They have someone identified who could fill this position. But they are still in discussion regarding where this person would report and the specific details of the position.
• New Business
o Academic Freedom Workshop – Val Ross would like to hold a workshop to explore First Amendment rights and academic freedom.
 Vivian Ibrahim – reports that a workshop is being developed about the First Amendment and academic freedom
• Proposed date: November 29 in the evening – details forthcoming
• Faculty senate, GSB, ASB are all invited to attend
o Colleagues can be invited from everyone’s department if they are interested
o University Committee – The Senate has been contacted by Staff Council, which wishes to move forward with this.
 Chair approached by the staff council to establish a University Committee
• Concerns expressed by the executive
o Could this become a “large” body that potentially bypasses the other organizations?
o Could the organizations have competing interests? And how would they be handled?
• Currently the idea would be that the committee would be comprised of two members from each of the bodies on campus and would get together to discuss issues of mutual interest as needed or quarterly basis
• It will be moving forward with consultation from the Senate
• Questions:
o Q: What are the bodies?
o A: Graduate Student Council, Associated Student Body, Staff Council, and Faculty Senate (potential contingent faculty body in the future)
o Q: We would retain the ability to make recommendations to upper administration, and then also issue joint recommendations as needed?
o A: Yes, and it would also enable better communication amongst the bodies
o Email alias – Resolution has been called back because it wasn’t brought through the appropriate channels within the GSC
o Consensual relationship policy
 A policy is currently moving through upper administration
 Suggestion by upper administration that it be brought back to the Senate
• Estimation of early spring semester timeline
o No new business
• Adjournment
o 6:16