Chair Talk 4.8-In Case You Weren't Wondering

I want to start with an apology to those faculty members, and others, who felt it was inappropriate of me to send out Chair Talk 4.7 yesterday.  In no way did I intend to add to an environment in which it can be hard for legitimate grievances to be aired, but I accept that my saying what I said yesterday, from my perch as Chair of the Faculty, had that effect for a significant number of you.  For that I apologize, full stop.  I was also wrong to imply anything about pay equity issues at the UA – I thought I had stayed away from it, but apparently I didn’t succeed.

I propose that we pivot from my mistakes to open a broader discussion about pay inequities.  I propose that we empower (insofar as I have the power) an Ad Hoc Faculty Senate group populated largely by the faculty who raised these concerns to me now – the charge being to dig out the data, uncover the assumptions, take into account context and history, and tell us how we are doing – unvarnished.

I’ll be honest and say that pay inequity (and other gender, or really difference-based inequities) has not recently been high on my agenda as Faculty Chair.  My main focus now is academic freedom, if that matters.  But it is also true, at least to my knowledge, that “inequities” writ large is rarely a top item in the ‘what makes you unhappy’ part of the climate surveys that have been done at the UA over recent years. But the moment has changed, and maybe this is the right time to take a deep dive into this issue – faculty led.

So, if you are one of the faculty who took the time to write me, I already responded directly but count this as an invitation to join the Ad Hoc group, whose report would be due by the end of this semester.  Along with recommendations for how we could do better.  As soon as I hear from a number of you we will formally constitute the group and help it get going with some guidance from Faculty Center staff.

This issue allows me to raise the question of my fitness for the Chair position – which a number of my respondents were candid enough to do.  My answer is that it depends on what one means by fitness.  What just happened in these past few days results from the fact that I am the kind of person who can be counted on to speak out.  Not to always get it right.  Perhaps I should have made it clear in my comments that I was not speaking for all faculty.  Perhaps I should not have used a Chair Talk at all.

This allows me to close by reminding you that elections for the next Chair of the Faculty will be happening this semester and that nominations are still being accepted online for this and other faculty governance posts.  I repeat my exhortation that you consider running for something, including Chair – I have run unopposed twice now and I would rather there was an actual choice.

Lynn Nadel
_____________________________________________
Chair of the Faculty
Regents Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Cognitive Science
University of Arizona
nadel@u.arizona.edu