SACUA talks need for diverse faculty expertise, upcoming vote on Faculty Senate restructuring 

The Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs met in the Alexander G. Ruthven Building Monday afternoon to discuss the upcoming Faculty Senate meeting and the need for diverse faculty expertise on various committees.

The meeting began with welcoming new members Heather O’Malley, assistant research scientist at the University of Michigan Medical School; Vilma Mesa, professor of education and mathematics; and Alex Yi, professor of electrical and computer engineering.

Tom Braun, biostatistics professor and the new chair of SACUA, then asked committee members to encourage their constituents to attend the Faculty Senate meeting on May 25 to discuss the Faculty Senate restructuring plan, which would allow clinical faculty, archivists and curators into the Senate.

“We need a quorum of 100 individuals at this meeting for it to go forth, so please tell your constituents that their attendance is needed and welcome,” Braun said. “We do plan to invite individuals to come forward to express information both in support of the resolution and information that is against the resolution so that we can have a free debate within the Senate.”

Art & Design professor Rebekah Modrak raised concerns over the upcoming meeting and vote being scheduled for over the summer rather than during the school year.

“This is a hugely important matter, restructuring the Faculty Senate,” Modrak said. “A lot of faculty disappear once they’ve submitted their grades, and they’re just not around or are checked out in the summer. I’m just curious why we’re not going to be doing this, let’s say, the second or third week into the fall, which is when I think faculty are engaged.”

Braun said they did not select the date with the intent to suppress anybody’s interest in the resolution, but were just looking to continue ongoing discussions from the school year.

“We have the ball rolling on this, the momentum is here,” Braun said. “We felt the time to strike was now, to get one more meeting with the faculty before the semester is over.”

Braun then provided updates on the array of feedback SACUA has received on their most recent statement regarding grading amid the ongoing Graduate Employees’ Organization strike. Braun emphasized that not all faculty agree on the position of the statement.

“The polarized opinions that I have seen about what we stated are obvious and demonstrate that there is not an overall faculty consensus on the grading issues at this university,” Braun said. “I want to reiterate that there have been direct statements given to SACUA expressing alternative viewpoints to those public statements.”

The committee then held a brief executive session regarding the ongoing contract negotiations between GEO and the University. 

Following the session, Luke McCarthy, Faculty Senate Office director, discussed the importance of having members of the various SACUA committees with areas of expertise including academic freedom, communication and government relations. McCarthy said he plans to reach out to committee members for their help finding volunteers with specific expertise. 

“To make sure that these committees work well, it would be nice for us to think about the areas of particular expertise that we don’t have,” McCarthy said. “If a committee is meeting and talking about a particular issue they can (then), instead of looking to the administration, look to the faculty expert in this area.”

Modrak said she would suggest adding several other categories where expertise is needed to the list, including social justice, political science and institutional critique. She said it is also important to consider the skill sets of various faculty in addition to their academic expertise.

“I would lean on different areas,” Modrak said. “One of the strengths of a lot of faculty in the arts is thinking creatively about different strategies, and I think that would be really helpful.”

Summer Managing News Editor Madison Hammond can be reached at madihamm@umich.edu.