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| October 2024 Edition | www.scu.edu/faculty-senate |
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Welcome to the Faculty Senate eNews—we are more than halfway through the fall quarter … Our first Senate meeting in October started with introductions and “fun facts,” where we all learned that we are more than the department we teach in and the fantastic scholarship and creative activity we are pursuing. Some of us are playing pickleball and baseball, running marathons, walking Caminos, adopting cats, raising chickens (and kids), foraging for mushrooms, painting watercolors, exploring the chemistry of exotic cocktails, reading romance novels, singing in the choir, paddle-boarding, and daydreaming about being rich so we can adopt pandas. Who knew? It was exciting to hear about your research and interesting to learn these details about our lives. Santa Clara faculty are, indeed, multi-dimensional! At the first meeting, we also received preliminary information about some of the pending issues before the Faculty Affairs Committee (FAC), including clerical revisions to the Faculty Handbook and more substantive proposals regarding the structure of committees and the role of non-tenure-track chairs in evaluating, ranking, or recommending tenure-track hires. Most of these matters will return for additional discussion and voting in subsequent meetings. Please read the documents shared in the section titled "October 2024 Meeting Links" for a complete list of agenda proposals and slide decks presented at the October meeting. The meeting concluded with an introduction and presentation from our new Executive Vice President and Provost, Jim Glaser. He shared his vision for the academe at Santa Clara, including the proposal to move from a quarter to a semester system and his thoughts and ideas about pre-appointment evidence in tenure petitions. Provost Glaser had limited time to engage in Q&A with Senate members, so he is invited to meet with us again at our last quarterly meeting on December 11th. In November, there will be two meetings: regular FSC business on November 13th and a special “Forum on Academic Freedom,” co-hosted with the College of Arts and Sciences and Provost’s Office on November 20th from 3:30-5:00 p.m.in the St. Clare Room of the Learning Commons. The forum will feature noted First Amendment scholar and Law School Professor Howard Schweber, who will discuss issues of academic freedom in the context of protected versus unprotected expression at public and private universities. The forum is open to any university faculty who wish to attend, and there will be a reception immediately following the forum. It is turning out to be a very busy quarter, as usual! I end with a quote by the great musical icon Leonard Bernstein: "To achieve great things, two things are needed: a plan and not quite enough time." Thanks, everyone, for your continued participation in shared governance. I look forward to working together!
Teresa McCollough Faculty Senate Council October 2024 Meeting Links
Links: Music Playlist: .
Event Announcements
To anticipate seating and plan for the reception, please RSVP here.
In compliance with the ADA/504 please direct your accommodation requests to Ixtlac Dueñas at 408.554.5035 or iduenas@scu.edu at least 72 hours prior to the event.
Mark your calendars for Opus Prize Week - November 12-14, 2024!
Let’s come together as a community to honor and celebrate the Opus Prize Finalists with a week full of events. The 2024 Opus Prize Award Ceremony is scheduled for Thursday, November 14, 2024, at 4 p.m. in the Louis B. Mayer Theatre with a Community Celebration reception immediately following at the Sobrato Campus for Discovery & Innovation. Business attire is suggested. For general questions and accommodation requests, email scuopusprize@scu.edu.
Meeting Schedule for 2024-25
Additional FSC meetings have been added for academic year 2024-25. A Special Forum on Academic Freedom as well as four additional meetings during winter and spring quarters to allow for more time and discussion of Faculty Affairs Committee's proposals that come before the Senate. These extra meetings are in bold and highlighted with an asterisk (*). All meetings are held in person from 3:30-5:30 p.m. in Lucas Hall, Polycom Executive Classroom 107, unless otherwise indicated in parenthesis. Seating is limited and first priority is given to Faculty Senate Council Representatives. Fall Quarter 2024
Winter Quarter 2025
Spring Quarter 2025
For a full list of meetings this academic year, please visit: https://www.scu.edu/faculty-senate/meetings/
Seeking Faculty Input
Over the 2023-24 academic year, the University Coordinating Committee (UCC) discussed the challenges with our shared governance system raised at the fall and winter University Policy Committee (UPC) Quarterly Roundtables, including the complexity of the overall structure. For academic year 2024-25, the UCC is examining specific actions that the committee might take to improve parts of the shared governance system that need to be fixed in terms of efficiency, timeliness, etc. These actions could include structural changes or changes to procedures. As an ex officio member of the UCC, the Faculty Senate President is interested in sharing faculty feedback on the following question: How can we change or improve the structure of shared governance?
Please send your ideas to: facultysenate@scu.edu
Elections
Special elections for the Committee on Promotion to Teaching Professor (formerly Senior Lecturer) for the College of Arts & Sciences, the School of Engineering, and the Leavey School of Business closed on Friday, November 1, 2024. The confirmation process is in progress. The next elections in the cycle are for the University Rank and Tenure Committee to replace:
For a summary of election results please visit: 2024-25 Voting Summary for Faculty Senate Elections
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Questions? Please email facultysenate@scu.edu or contact your department's Faculty Senate Council Representative. Visit our website: www.scu.edu/faculty-senate |