Faculty Senate Minutes | January 19, 2022
College Senators’ Committee reported to the Senate.
Faculty Senate Meeting
Note: To facilitate open discussion, the identity of most Senators making comments or questions is not recorded. Such comments as recorded here are generally not verbatim. The identity of comments from Senate Officers and Senate Ad Hoc and Standing Committee Chairs are given, as is the identity of persons commenting in their official administrative capacity (e.g. EVP, Provost, or College Dean.)
Call to Order
President Matthew Philips called the Senate to order on a Zoom conference.
Approval of November Meeting Minutes (unanimous)
Announcements and Updates
- Executive committee has planned for the Faculty Senate’s February meeting to be held in-person in Broyhill Auditorium. The expectation is that the March meeting will return to Zoom.
Presentations
- Presentation: Dina Marty, Deputy General Counsel, “Privacy and Security Update.” See appendices for powerpoint slides.Questions from Senate: Can you talk about the way various service work – like creating workflows through Trello – affect risk. Answer: These increase risk of third party incidents. In terms of third party incidents, is the increase at WFU unique? Answer: Not unique, increasingly common.
- Presentation: Mark Knudson, report on the new Substance Abuse Policy. See appendices for the updated policy. It is unfortunately still includes “Prevention” in the title of the document file, but this has been properly removed in the body of the content. The response to previously expressed concerns from the Senate is good, with effective restructuring. One key change is the removal of mention of students, which is essential as the policy only applies to employees. Some concerns still remain, including the need to refrain from prohibiting activities that are legal in the context in which they are pursued, clarifying the meaning of “impairing job performance,” and reviewing the conditions under which Medical Review Officers might be able to impact the recording of positive and negative tests. Overall, this new document is much improved.
Committee Reports
- Integration Committee – Melissa Jenkins: Presentation by Olga Pierrakos, Chair, Department of Engineering, “Engineering Collaboration Across Programs and Units.” See appendices for .pdf file.
- Resources Committee – Simone Caron: Childcare continues to be a central concern of the Faculty Senate. The committee is working to get this topic on the agenda as an advancement issue.
- Committee of Collegiate Senators – Ellen Kirkman: The committee would like to endorse the following resolution: to have the administration create daycare for faculty and staff. As a second issue, the committee wants to continue to ask the Faculty Senate to investigate the manner in which evictions from university-relate properties occur. This should be an ongoing concern . A third issue is that there was some opposition among faculty to the online-pivot announcement to accommodate the “snow day.” Is this going to be the new default? Should it be assumed response to extreme weather events instead of conventional class cancellations? As a fourth topic, the Committee of Collegiate Senators is arranging a meeting with Shea Kidd Brown.
- Action item: “We ask the admin to move forward on plans for daycare for children of faculty and staff.”
- This passes Full Senate vote with no opposition.
- Nominating Committee – Pat Lord: Pat Lord, Mark Knudson, and Steve Kelley will present nominations for officers in February and vote in March.
Adjournment
Appendices
Categories: Minutes