Chair Talk #2 2015

CHAIR TALK 2015-16 #2

 My first Chair Talk message was all about process – now its time to shift to content.  In addition to dealing effectively with the day-to-day life of shared governance, faculty officers' goals prominently include nurturing conversations, and hopefully actions, around the biggest issues facing the UA, and public higher education in general.

This point was brought home forcefully by a faculty member’s response to my first message last week, and to the goals stated therein, which I partially repeat here (expletives deleted):

“I have never seen so much nonsense in my life.  There is nothing in these so-called goals that have to do with reversing the demise of what was once a great research university”

I reject the use of the word demise, but agree that we have serious challenges going forward. I will resist calling these challenges “opportunities” although they certainly are that.  Changing how we run Faculty Senate, improving the website, or working on infrastructure may seem trivial to some, but without those kinds of improvements, making progress on our substantive challenges is unlikely to happen.  

These challenges define our central goal – to initiate Senate and campus-wide discussions of the core challenges we face as a public higher education institution with a serious research mission, land grant status and responsibilities, and two medical schools. 

One change has been to engage Faculty Senate in discussions of importance campus-wide.  Our reformulation of Senate meetings allows us to incorporate a lengthy (40 min) and substantive discussion at each meeting.  The line-up of topics for fall semester:

Aug 31     Research: Its Doing and Undoing – K. Espy and S. Schwartz

Oct 5        Arizona Board of Regents President, Eileen Klein

Nov 2       Teaching Quality – Gail Burd

Dec 7        Undergraduate Life – Kendal Washington White

We encourage all faculty to express their thoughts about each of these areas – what do you see as our most pressing challenges in the domain of research, in teaching, in our relations with ABOR, and in the way our students live at the UA. Because there is not enough room in Old Main for 1550 faculty, we ask that you either send your comments and questions to your College’s Senate representative, or directly to me, prior to the meeting, so your thoughts are part of the discussion at Senate.  The next Senate meeting, with a discussion of research, is only a few days away, so you’ll need to be prompt on that one.  Names of Senators organized by College can be found on the faculty governance webpage http://facultygovernance.arizona.edu/faculty-senate).

In addition to these Senate Discussions we are planning a Faculty Forum from 11:50 – 1:30 on October 12 to discuss a prominent issue in higher education these days: an issue brought to the fore recently by the following article:

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/09/the-coddling-of-the-american-mind/399356/

We ask that faculty commit to showing up at the Forum, which will likely involve a panel making brief remarks and then opening up the discussion to the entire ensemble.   We think a turn-out of 50-75 faculty is needed to make this worthwhile.  I cannot think of a more important issue in how we go about our instructional mission, so please participate in this Forum if you can.  RSVP directly to me (nadel@u.arizona.edu).

These activities are part of our answer to the criticism above – and there will be more.  Meanwhile, let’s hear from you on Discussions and the Forum.  I hope your semester has started well. 

Lynn Nadel

Chair of the Faculty