Dear SCU Faculty,

Welcome to the first Faculty Senate eNews. We created this newsletter to inform you about the activities of the Faculty Senate Council (FSC) and, hopefully, engage all in faculty governance. For the foreseeable future, we will continue to have our FSC meetings on Zoom. Last spring, we noticed a much higher level of participation (over 200 faculty members at some FSC meetings!) and we hope that will continue. Though each department has a FSC representative, all faculty are invited to participate in our FSC meetings. 

This year, participation in our governance system seems more important than ever. We are facing so many challenges this year, with COVID-19 not only disrupting our lives and teaching, but threatening the financial well-being of our university and university community. In addition, the racial injustices that we have seen both nationally and here on our campus, have devastated us. On top of this all, we are experiencing the effects of our new climate reality as forest fires continue to affect our air quality and have forced many of us from our homes. While 2020 has certainly challenged us as a community, we hope that this will be a productive year for our Faculty Senate Council and a chance for us to use governance to support our community members. Some of the immediate issues that the Faculty Senate Council will address include: 

• Budgetary issues
• Racial injustices
• Lecturer Unionization/Title Changes
  
• Evaluation of teaching
• Caregiver support
• Title IX concerns

While we recognize that this year will bring new and unforeseen challenges, we sincerely hope that we can work through the faculty governance process to solve some of these problems. We invite you to share your priorities with us either through this Faculty Senate Feedback Form or by sending an email to: facultysenate@scu.edu. 

Our first Faculty Senate Meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, October 14, 2020 from 3:30-5:30pm. On behalf of the Faculty Senate Executive Committee, we hope to see you then! 

Best Regards,

Leslie Gray
Faculty Senate President, 2020-21

FSC Meetings for 2020-21

All meetings for this year will occur via Zoom until further notice. Zoom details will be included in the meeting agendas. Meetings are scheduled from 3:30-5:30PM on the following dates:

• October 14, 2020
• November 11, 2020
• December 9, 2020
• January 13, 2021
• February 10, 2021
• March 10, 2021
• April 14, 2021
• May 12, 2021
• June 9, 2021

If you are not able to attend a meeting, please remember to send an alternate representative from your constituency. Please remember to notify Ixtlac Dueñas regarding your absence and who your alternate will be.

FSC Representatives for 2020-21

A list of FSC representatives can viewed here.

Resources

This year we are providing templates to assist with the development of resolutions, motions, and statements. These templates will provide consistency across all our communications and allow our Faculty Senate Adminstrative Assistant to track the status and response to these documents. You can access links to the templates here, or you can request a link directly from Ixtlac Dueñas.

• Resolution Template [A sample can be viewed here.]
• Motion Template
• Statement Template

Faculty Letter Regarding Racial Harassment

In August, members of the Faculty Senate sent a letter to the administration calling upon them to act immediately on the racial profiling and harassment of our colleague, Dr. Danielle Morgan and her family. The letter expressed that statements and apologies alone are entirely inadequate, and called for immediate action to address the injustice. It called for the administration to immediately implement a restorative justice process that prioritizes the concerns of Dr. Morgan and her family, as well as the voices of our Black students, faculty, staff and alumni, and also recommended immediate steps to be taken in order to change the culture that led to this act of racial violence. The letter may be viewed here.

Elect Your Department's FSC Representative

Department Chairs, if you have not done so already, please confirm your department's FSC representative with Ixtlac Dueñas. If your FSC Representative from 2019-20 will continue to serve this year, please let Ixtlac know. 

There are (and will be) many significant issues for the FSC to deal with this year so it is crucial that all departments have a committed representative who will speak for the department, add his or her expertise to the discussion, and report back to his/her department.  

Dear SCU Faculty,

Please be on the look-out for emails from Ixtlac Dueñas regarding upcoming elections. There are typically two phases in the election process: (1) She sends out a sample ballot with a list of candidates eligible for the election. If you will not be able to serve OR if you want to opt-in, it is important to let her know at this phase. (2) She will send a second email with the official ballot, candidates, and instructions for voting via e-Campus including the voting deadline. PLEASE VOTE!!

Once the election closes, I will inform those elected and the website will be updated after their confirmation. THANK YOU for your active participation in our elections and your willingness to serve and continue to improve our faculty governance system.

I'm looking forward to working with you this year,

Laura Nichols
Faculty Senate President-elect, 2020-21

Election Results & Confirmations 

• Summary for 2019-20 elections

Current Elections

• FJB, Engineering (Election closes on 9/23/20) 

Upcoming Elections

• At-Large FSC Representatives (Sample Ballot Stage)

Faculty Senate Commitee Membership Lists

• University and School Rank and Tenure
• Promotion to Senior Lecturers
• Faculty Judicial Board
• Grievance

Faculty Recognition Event

We are saddened to cancel this year’s Faculty Recognition event. Holding a Zoom version of the event was not in keeping with the spirit of this festive occasion that celebrates the excellence of our faculty and announces many faculty achievements, including the Faculty Senate Professor Award. An announcement of this and other awards will be forthcoming soon. We look forward to celebrating at a time when we can get together in person. 

Voice your concern! Share your input! Suggest an agenda topic!

We invite you to share your priorities with us either through this Faculty Senate Feedback Form or by sending an email to: facultysenate@scu.edu. 

Our first Faculty Senate Council meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, October 14, 2020 from 3:30-5:30pm.

All faculty members below the level of dean are welcome to attend FSC meetings in accordance with our by-laws. While administrators at the level of dean or above are not Faculty Senate members, they may attend when officially invited and during the time they are on the agenda.

We hope to see you virtually on Zoom!