Chair Talk #9 January 2016

Chair Talk # 9  Campus Climate

At the end of this past Fall semester small groups of faculty visited six cultural centers at the UA to listen to students served by those Centers about their lived experiences at our university.  What we heard was discomforting, disturbing, and depressing.  But we also heard about ways in which faculty could make a positive difference in the lives of many students.  A summary of what we heard is available on the Faculty Governance website [Campus Climate-Fall Listening Tour] I urge every faculty member to read this document, as it lays out the reasons why we must take action now, not later, not soon, but now.

Faculty Senate has had several lengthy discussions of some of the issues brought out in the document.  It is our intention, over the course of the semester, to keep meeting with students and to develop specific actions that faculty can readily take, that could alter the lives of many of the students in our charge, for the better.  We hope and expect that all faculty will get behind our efforts to make life at the UA as inclusive for everybody as we possibly can.

Lynn Nadel