Debate over what Faculty Senate’s Executive Committee is allowed to discuss with the Provost present dominated Monday’s Faculty Senate meeting. Senators attempted to pass two resolutions to create a clear policy around this issue, but both ultimately failed.
The Executive Committee currently meets in the Provost’s office. Originally, they had met in a conference room in the basement of Morrison Hall, but were moved to the Provost’s office because of COVID-19 regulations. Due to the conference room in the basement of Morrison Hall being too small, they moved to the Provost’s office.
“The first part of it is a matter of being aware of optics because not everyone was aware of the meeting in the Provost’s office,” Humanities senator Jay Price said. “… so the point was, is that something that we’re aware of? Is that something that we’re comfortable with?”
The main roles of the Executive Committee include setting the agenda for each Faculty Senate meeting and reviewing changes to university policy that might affect faculty. They often receive policy recommendations from Faculty Senate committees and decide how to handle those.
“One thing that we’ve been asked about — and this is particularly what these issues that we’re getting ready to discuss are coming from — is over the years we have been asked to do sort of ad hoc reviews of these various things that come up that don’t have a clear policy that guides administration on how to respond,” Faculty Senate President Chris Stone said.
These things include disputes between departments, disputes between faculty and their deans and between faculty and senate committees.
The first resolution suggested that the Executive Committee stop meeting in the provost’s office because it gives “the optics that the Executive Committee is a part of the Provost’s staff rather than leaders of the Faculty Senate.”
Associate Professor of History George Dehner was involved in drafting the resolution. He said he sees two problems with the committee meeting in the provost’s office.
“First,” Dehner said, “whether it is intentional or not — the provost in the meeting can influence how people discuss things because they may feel constrained about offering opinions that may be at odds with what the administration would like, or potentially bring concern about their employment at the institution.”
The first resolution failed 29-16.
The second resolution sought to clarify that the Executive Committee does not serve as a “‘voice of the Senate,’ let alone the ‘voice of the faculty.’”
“The basis of the second resolution is perhaps more to the point of the sense of — certainly the provost can appoint whoever they wish, absolutely they can — but the role of the faculty senate executive committee is a different role,” Price said. “It serves the Senate, rather than the provost.”
This motion also failed after multiple senators expressed their disagreement with the specific language used in the resolution.
“While I agree with the spirit of this resolution … there are many things that we have the potential to be more transparent (about) than we have been, there are a lot of things that we assume other people know,” At Large Senator Susan Castro said. “Some things need to come to the senate floor so we at least know these things are happening.”
The WSU Faculty Senate meets at 3:30 p.m. every second and fourth Monday in 110A Woosley Hall. Meetings are open to the public, including students.
