In addition to the meeting agenda and minutes that are posted for Faculty Senate meetings, we'll be publishing monthly 'meeting highlights' to share the most important takeaways from the last Faculty Senate meeting.
September 21, 2021
- Announcements from President Law
- Winter Break has been extended and will be December 20 - January 3, this includes recognition of the 2020 Juneteenth Holiday.
- COVID-19 emergency leave has been extended, visit the Human Resources website for more information.
- Faculty Senate Business
- The senate is seeking nominations to fill college vacancies on various councils, a list of vacancies is available here.
- The Publications Council now has a rolling submission process. The application form can be found on Canvas.
- An ad-hoc group is exploring the creation of budget council based on similar councils
at peer and aspirate institutions to draft the charge.
- Background: Last year a Faculty Senate subcommittee met with the administration to understand the need for the budget cuts announced in Fall 2020. The subcommittee’s contention was that there were adequate funds to cover all necessary expenses, and it was unclear why cuts were needed. They felt the budget process was not transparent.
- A change to the constitution has been proposed to more accurately reflect the range of faculty titles in the definition of ‘general faculty.’ This proposed amendment will go before the full faculty senate for a vote and then be voted on by the full faculty.
- USF Forest Preserve Update
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Outside environmental engineer was hired and will be preparing a report.
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Background: Last year a RFI was put out on the USF Forest Preserve, located north of campus on Fletcher. There was considerable concern from faculty and students about the possibility of losing this land that is used by many for teaching and research.
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- IT and Innovative Education Updates
- This item was not fully discussed in the interest of time, but faculty can submit feedback and identify future areas of focus here.