[Faculty] Faculty Senator Summary of Oct Senate Meeting and Welcome Senator Bobby Torres

Wed Oct 11 10:08:05 MST 2023

Hi CALES faculty,

Join us in welcoming our newly elected CALES faculty senator, Dr. Bobby Torres<https://agriculture.arizona.edu/person/robert-torres>. Bobby is a Professor in AETI and has been at UA for 13 years. He will be a good addition to our team as we continue to advocate for faculty within our college.

There are a few points worth summarizing from the Faculty Senate meeting on Oct. 2nd, 2023.

  1.  Many faculty have been following the College of Nursing situation in which slides from a doctoral seminar were uploaded online and then went viral. The situation is described in more detail in the Faculty Senate’s Committee on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion<https://facultygovernance.arizona.edu/sites/default/files/2023-10/Senate%20DEI%20summary%20and%20comments%20FINAL_CORRECTED%5B81%5D.pdf> report<https://facultygovernance.arizona.edu/sites/default/files/2023-10/Senate%20DEI%20summary%20and%20comments%20FINAL_CORRECTED%5B81%5D.pdf> (presented during Senate). A College of Nursing colleague gave open session remarks about the harm inflicted –not only within the transgender community, but within the College of Nursing (the faculty under scrutiny resigned)-- related to the incident and the University's handling of the events.

  2.  Dr. Gary Rhoades presented additional information from the General Faculty Committee on Financial Recalibration(GFFRC). See the attached handout with data/graphics. During this presentation, Gary reported on UA trends in hiring of tenure-track faculty over the past 7 years: UA has declined in the percent of tenure-track faculty hires, reaching its lowest percentage last academic year. In 2022, only 10% of all faculty hires were tenure track. Gary described the challenges this poses–it is difficult to continue our Research I designation with fewer tenure-track colleagues. Importantly, this trend means that more faculty are provided less job security and, in most instances, less pay, than tenure-track lines.

  1.  GFFRC made the following recommendations: that the university implement a 3-5 year plan to 1) increase the number and percentage of tenure-track faculty, 2) reduce the percentage of part-time faculty and 3) increase the percentage of career-track faculty on multi-year contracts. **Note that CALES leads all colleges in multi-year contracts. During 2021-2022, Faculty Council worked with CALES leadership to ensure that all eligible career-track faculty receive multi-year contracts. This should be happening across all CALES units; if it is not, please reach out to your council representatives or your faculty senators.

The recording of the full Faculty Senate meeting has not yet been posted, but when it is, you may view it by at this link (scroll down to “meeting recordings”):

https://facultygovernance.arizona.edu/participate/faculty-senate

Our next Faculty Senate meeting is Monday, November 6th, 3-5pm. To attend virtually, you can register here: https://arizona.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_adbLj2jQTia64VIWYa4GsA

One more reminder - please attend the Fall  ALVSCE Town Hall, Tuesday, Oct. 17th from 10-11:30 in ENR2, Room S107 (can also be watched online).

As always, please reach out to us with additional questions and follow-ups. This can be via email or via our anonymous qualtrics survey: https://uarizona.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_a4vcRICRZwxfebc

Katie, Tim, & Bobby

Katharine H. Zeiders, Ph.D. (she/her)

Professor | Human Development and Family Science

Norton School of Ecology

College of Agriculture, Life & Environmental Sciences  (CALES)

650 N Park Avenue, Rm 235

Tucson, AZ 85719-5089

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