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August 31, 2009
Dear Colleagues:
On behalf of the Faculty Senate, I welcome you to the new academic year.
The Faculty Senate serves as a university-wide voice for faculty and as a
vehicle by which faculty can participate in the development of the
university. As I reported at the General Faculty Meeting last week,
President Raines along with Provost Faudree have supported a number of
significant steps to involve faculty in university decisions and enhance
the role of the Faculty Senate. Among these items are:
• A new Administrative Council
with Faculty Senate representation
• Department budgets to be available online to all faculty
• Faculty Senate to conduct search and select the Faculty Ombudsperson
• Senators to participate in the university’s annual program review
• Support for the senate resolution on faculty participation in chair
selection
• Faculty Senate representative to serve on the university’s TAF Committee
Those of you who have been at the university for some time will
recognize that many of these points represent important ways of
facilitating faculty involvement with university governance.
As also reported at the General Faculty Meeting, our senate has been
involved at a statewide level with the Association of Tennessee University Faculty Senates
(TUFS), which represents the faculty senates of all ten four-year public
universities in the Tennessee Board of Regents and University of Tennessee
systems. At its August meeting, TUFS approved a position statement on
higher education that calls for (a) the separation of our governance from
the two-year institutions and technical schools, (b) the merging of the
four-year institutions in the current TBR and UT systems under a single
governing body, and (c) the four-year institutions each having their own
independent local advisory boards.
Some of the benefits envisioned by this reorganization include:
• Student and faculty exchange programs between university campuses
• Joint academic programs across multiple institutions
• Statewide system for library access and interconnected IT systems
• Flattening and reduction of administrative structures
This TUFS position paper—which has already received an endorsement
from the Tennessee State Conference of the American Association of
University Professors—is now before the member faculty senates across the
state for their endorsement. It will be voted on by our Faculty Senate at
its first fall meeting on September 15. Before this meeting, all faculty
are encouraged to review the paper, which is available at this link, and express their views of
it either with their department
senator or by contacting the office
of the Faculty Senate.
We look forward to your involvement on this important matter, which has
potential implications for the future of both the University of Memphis and
higher education throughout the state of Tennessee.
Jeffrey S. Berman
President, Faculty Senate
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