A Faculty Senate meeting was held at the University Center with much debate about the 2023-2024 calendar, the December resolution for graduates, and data surrounding hired staff and budgets.

Before the meeting hosted on  Dec. 7, Chairperson Tracy Hawkins wanted to bring more attention to the many active committees.

“There’s a lot of impressive work going on and I think sometimes service work becomes a little bit invisible. I just want to make sure that we’re capturing it,” said Hawkins.

She encouraged the rest of the Senate to take time to look over some of the work being done by the committees and consider getting involved with the projects that peak their interest. 

After that there was a presentation of data documents that showed hired faculty and academic staff as well as budgets for departments. This raised concerns by many faculty members.

 It started with a member speaking about the departments’ desire for a voice instead of being presented with issues that are too late to act on or prepare for. They would like to know what is going to happen in advance with things such as curriculum change and budget. 

There was also a continuation of debate about how communication can be better executed throughout the chain of command. People feel that voices are being lost as matters are brought higher and higher up in administration. 

Faculty members are trying to push for closer communication, and further involvement of chairs and deans with appeals and information. They want more consultation and feedback from those making the overall decisions. 

Many members spoke out in the meeting to voice their concerns on issues. They plan to work on revising these problems and go over solutions presented until their next meeting in January. 

They closed out their first face to face meeting in two years, talking about course modality and making course catalogs, and WINS the same “language.”

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