[Faculty] Faculty Senate Meeting Agenda and Discussion Points

[Goyal, Ravi - (goyalr)]

Dear CALS Faculty,



Here are some updates from the last November Faculty Senate meeting.



  1.  During Open Session, one of our CALS faculty, Dr. Russ Toomey, described concerns about the UA’s health care coverage. In detail, he described that ASU announced that they are now covering gender-affirming care, leaving UArizona to be the only Arizona public university that does not have this coverage. As your senators, we saw this as an issue that we will continue to inquire about.



  1.  There was a brief update related to General Education, and the faculty asked questions specifically about the requirements for civic education. There were concerns related to how this was being taught and outside influence on the topics related to this. There will be more discussion of the General Education curriculum in future senate meetings.



  1.  Multi-year (MY) contracts for career track faculty were also discussed. Specifically, CALS was discussed as one of the few colleges that have committed to MY contracts for all eligible career-track faculty (other colleges have issued far fewer MY contracts). The brief discussion centered around the importance of MY (e.g., job security, greater buy-in) and specific ABOR policy, which now allows for the total number of MY contracts at UA to be 30% of the number of tenured/tenure-eligible faculty. Given the current number of tenure/tenure-eligible faculty, the university is only providing about 10% of career-track faculty MY contracts. More MY contracts can be given.



  1.  A resolution was passed that focused on the retaliation of UA employees. The text below was brought to the Faculty Senate because of concerns related to speaking out about safety concerns at the UA (in light of the investigation around Dr. Maxiner’s death).


Consistent with State law, ABOR and UHAP policies, and the tenants of academic freedom, The Faculty Senate affirms that all faculty, staff, and students not be subjected to harmful personnel actions (reprisals) for public disclosure of information they reasonably believe evidence matters of public concern about 1) a violation of any law, 2) mismanagement, or 3) a gross waste of monies or an abuse of authority. This explicitly pertains to disclosures related to public safety, including incidents associated with the murder of Professor Thomas Meixner and other public safety threats. Notwithstanding ARS 38- 533, the violation will be subject to severe penalties up to and including fines and dismissal comparable to those provided for State employees under Arizona Statutes 38-531, 38-532, and 38-533.



  1.  President Robbins was scheduled for an hour-long Q & A, but this was canceled, and he was not in attendance.


The next Faculty Senate meeting is Monday, Dec.5th, 3-5 pm. You can attend via zoom (registration link:https://arizona.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Kp-FRWusSvmTEBZQcothYw) or in person (LAW Room 164).


Also, just a reminder: You can give us anonymous comments/feedback on any faculty-related issue in this qualtrics survey:https://uarizona.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_4ZXIgJJOLxYVaD4

We appreciate those who have left us comments and will follow up soon.


Ravi Goyal, Tim Ottusch, Katie Zeiders



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