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April 27, 2010
Dear Colleagues:
At the beginning of this academic year, I reported on a series of
Faculty Senate initiatives supported by President Raines and Provost
Faudree to enhance the involvement of faculty in university decisions. As
the term of this year’s senate now comes to a close, I am pleased to list
the successful completion of many of these initiatives along with other
significant actions taken by the senate:
• Online Access to Department
Budgets: Faculty can now view their department budgets online using the
Banner ePrint channel from the Finance tab of the myMemphis portal.
This new capability was made possible by the excellent work of the Office
of Financial Planning. Full details are available from the original announcement
of this budget access for faculty.
• Access to Course Drop/Add
Information: During the past several years, the Faculty Senate has been
working with the Information Technology Division to develop an online
system that would give faculty access to current information about when
students drop, add, or withdraw from courses. This past fall term, a new
channel was added to the myMemphis portal to achieve this goal. The
development of this Drop/Add channel would not have been possible without
the collaboration of numerous members of both the Information Technology
Division and the senate’s Information Technology Committee,
with special thanks to the chair of this senate committee, Tom Banning.
Details and a link to a step-by-step guide are in the original announcement
of the portal.
• Evaluation of Top
Administrators: This spring term, the Faculty Senate authorized the
senate’s Faculty Input Committee
to conduct a 2009-2010 faculty survey evaluating the university president,
the provost, and the faculty member’s college dean. The survey—which was
conducted March 1-25, 2010—offered faculty a way to provide feedback to top
university administrators and make suggestions for change. Results of the
survey are available at this link.
• Faculty Participation in
Selection of Department Chairs: Last April, the Faculty Senate asked
President Raines to codify a role for faculty in the selection of their
department chairs. As one means of doing so, the section entitled
“Department Chairs” in chapter 2 of the 2010-2011 Faculty Handbook will include the following statement:
“University administrators who have responsibility for appointing
department chairs should ensure that such appointments are judged
acceptable by the majority of the faculty in a department, except under
unusual circumstances.”
• New Administrative Council:
This year, President Raines created a new Administrative Council, consisting of top university
administrators and with representation by the Faculty Senate. The inaugural
meeting of the Council was on
February 19, with budget issues being the primary focus. The Office of the
President has an online report from
this meeting.
• Faculty Resolution on Funding of
Athletics Department: At its March 23 meeting, the Faculty Senate
approved a resolution urging
President Raines to end the university’s practice of subsidizing
expenditures of the Athletics Department with general education funds. This
resolution has received local media attention, with an article in the
Commercial Appeal and a poll indicating that
more than two-thirds of the public supports the senate position.
President Raines has promised to issue a report to the faculty regarding
this matter.
These and other activities of the Faculty Senate are described in the
list of “Current and Recent Issues” on the senate’s Welcome
page. They could not have been
accomplished without the collaborative efforts of the senate’s Executive Committee,
the members of the senate,
the senate’s administrative assistant, Carolyn Featherstone, and the
various administrative divisions of the university. Special appreciation
must be given to President Raines, who was consistently supportive of the
Faculty Senate and was generous in the time and consideration she gave to
faculty concerns.
During the academic year, I have received messages of encouragement
concerning senate efforts from many of you. Thank you for this support. It
was an honor to serve as senate president and to represent the University
of Memphis faculty. I hope all of you will now join me in welcoming
incoming Faculty Senate President Wade Jackson, who begins leading the new
senate today.
My best wishes both for a successful ending to your academic term
and a rewarding summer.
Sincerely,
Jeffrey S. Berman
President, Faculty Senate
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