New senate grapples with first-year challenges

BY SALLY ACHARYA

The newly elected members of the still-evolving Faculty Senate met for the first time last week to start working out the details of its first year of operation, which is expected to be a time of some uncertainty as the new system is road tested and, to some degree, designed in action.

The challenges were illustrated by a discussion about how best to handle the transition to a new chair, a post that has been in limbo because of the overhaul of the governance system. If the old University Senate had continued, a chair would have been elected last spring. But since the senate in its old form was ending, no new chair was elected, bringing about a number of practical questions.

Jill Olmsted, School of Communication (SOC), served as chair last year on the now-defunct University Senate, a role that has carried over into the Faculty Senate pending election of a new chair. Under the vision for the new senate, Olmsted should now have been in the role of immediate past chair. But the new system wasn’t in place last academic year, so Olmsted has no successor in the wings.

In the long run, the new system is designed to encourage continuity by having seats on the senate for both an immediate past chair and a vice chair who serves one year before moving up to the position as chair. But until that system has been in place long enough for that to happen, the new senate will be grappling with how to structure the interim year.

Among the questions: Should a chair for the current academic year be elected this semester, without a course release? Should the chair be elected only for spring semester, and then be a one-term chair? If a person who serves on the senate by virtue of being a committee chair is willing to serve as senate chair, would that person be released from committee work? And if so, the committee would still have to be chaired, so wouldn’t that mean an extra body would have to be added to the senate?

“There’s really no doubt that this is going to be a dramatic year of transition,” Olmsted told the senators. However, she said, “We really hope this is the start of a reinvigorated and esteemed faculty governance system—one that’s respected by the faculty, and just as important, by the administration.”

Provost Neil Kerwin agreed. “It is a notable day for the university,” he said. “To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time a faculty senate was created by referendum.”

Most of the new senators were in place by last week. The four at-large senators elected by the university as a whole are Brian Forst, School of Public Affairs (SPA), Katharine Kravetz, Washington Semester, and two senators from the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS), Tony Ahrens of psychology and Roberta Rubenstein of literature.

The senate also includes committee chairs and one vice chair.

• The Faculty Relations chair is Robert Jernigan, mathematics and statistics, CAS, and the vice chair is Laura Langbein, SPA.
• The chair of Curriculum and Academic Programs is Cathy Schaeff, biology, CAS. Her cochair is yet to be determined.
• The chair of Instructional Budget and Benefits is John Douglass, SOC.
• The chair of Faculty Dev-elopment is Barlow Burke, Washington College of Law.
• The chair of Information Services is Sarah Irvine Belson, education, CAS.
• The chair of Student Life is Donald Brenner, Kogod School of Business.

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