2:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Booker House Conference Room & Zoom Webinar
Senators Present: Huiwang Ai, Aaron Bloomfield, Jennifer Greeson, Michael Kennedy, Jim Lambert, Alicia Lopez Opere, Andy Pennock, Lisa Peterson, Brian Pusser, Eric Ramirez Weaver, Sue Saliba, Jim Savage, Jeri Seidman, Jessica Sewell, Brian Wright, Aniko Bodroghkozy
Ex-Officio & Guests Present: Maite Brandt Pearce, Brie Gertler, Ian Mullins
Call to Order: Jim Lambert called the meeting to order at 2:13 PM
Brie Gertler, Interim Provost
-
Brie offered her congratulations to the winners of the faculty senate elections.
-
There is a special BOV meeting on Tuesday, May 6 that is scheduled to be a budget workshop with the Finance Committee that is open to all BOV members. It was originally scheduled for April 29, but the noon session ran long. Much of the April 29 meeting was in closed session, but the Resolution on Advancing Free Inquiry and Viewpoint Diversity at UVA came out of the meeting.
-
University placed a bid for the Federal Executive Institute property. The City of Charlottesville also placed a bid, and they received the property.
-
March 7th resolution call for dissolving central DEI programs and finding homes for permissible programs. April 7 delivered to the BOV an update on progress. UVA received a letter from the Department of Justice to share a report showing they’ve dismantled DEI initiatives.
-
The next regularly scheduled BOV meeting is set June 5 and 6.
Question: Are other universities receiving the same requests? Any sort of collective presence in Washington?
Yes, UVA is coordinating with other schools, but this letter was specific to UVA. Other public institutions passed DEI resolutions. UVA was first because of the BOV was already scheduled to meet. Julia Smith, UVA’s Federal Relations employee, coordinates with her counter parts from peer institutions. She has relationships with Federal agencies, so she knows what’s happening.
Grant update: the National Science Foundation has frozen new and some existing grants. UVA estimates they have lost $43 Million and 33 grants have been lost. NSF has announced they will use a 15% F&A rate. This will be challenged and may go into an injunction.
Question: What planning is being done to adjust to these funding cuts?
Each school has done a contingency plan. Each school is different in several ways so cuts in federal research funding is school specific.
Question: Is there a projection of how much money UVA could lose?
We really do not know but there are skinny budgets being put forth. Skinny budgets include a 50% reduction in NSF funding.
Approval of minutes from April 11 and April 28: motion to approve is unanimous.
Resolution in Support of University Presidents
Faculty Senate leadership created the resolution which will be voted on at the full meeting on May 16. The General Faculty Council passed a similar resolution. There was discussion about working together on future issues. Also discussed linking resolutions on website or stating resolutions are supported by additional entities. Maybe an article from the Cavalier Daily could show the two bodies are in support of each other. The Ad hoc committee on Governance and Representation could discuss the topic.
BOV update
Michael stated that the BOV passed a resolution on April 29 titled Advancing Free Inquiry and Viewpoint Diversity at UVA which calls for an appointee from faculty senate to work with the President and Interim Provost and report back to the board on the climate and campus culture. The BOV has been invited to the May 16 Faculty Senate meeting and also offered the option of attending via zoom.
Provost Office Update
Maite Brandt Pearce
Made a request for FS and GFC to help create a small, working group for the revision of Provost Policy 004. She would like it to me a mix of junior and senior faculty, AGF, both with and without tenure with a total of 6.
Discipline Working Group the draft has gone through revisions and a new draft has been sent out to faculty. There are town halls next week on Wednesday and Thursday. It will go through more revisions then the 30-day faculty review.
Faculty Senate of VA
Aniko Bodroghkozy, FS representative to the VA Faculty Senate
-
There’s an initiative of the coordination of all university faculty senate chairs/presidents to work together in this current environment and on Virginia specific issues.
-
In response to BOV resolutions, the Faculty Senate of Virginia passed the statement “The Faculty Senate of Virginia calls for written, detailed, and public updates on the specific programs, policy, and practices impacted by the recent and coordinated Board of Visitor actions in response to “the Presidential Executive Order on DEI” “Do we affirm this or sign off or just a point of info? No action taken.
-
Mutual Defense Compact which is a resolution that started at Rutgers and is based on athletic conference unity. They are asking other university presidents to create similar compacts. At the FS of VA, the head of VA AAUP presented and is calling for all VA universities and colleges to form a VA Mutual Defense Compact. Is UVA interested in UVA FS in considering this? Discussion took place. There’s a concern that UVA can not commit money so is this more symbolic?
Committee Updates
-
Adhoc committee on bylaws – Aaron will send out the new proposal later today for people to review and then vote on at the May 16th meeting.
-
AAC – the committee has two new SCPS concentrations to move forward from the committee that Senate needs to vote on. There are also some closures from SON. On Monday, they are hearing about two other proposals that they hope to have those ready for vote on Friday, May 16.
-
FRRRW - N/A
-
Policy – N/A
-
DEI – the committee is considering changing their committee’s name.
-
Finance – adding the VP of Academic Affairs to the committee.
-
RTS – N/A
-
Elections - after the recent elections, there is an additional EXCO-at large seat available. Please let Michael know if you would like to run for this seat and have a statement prepared for the May 16 meeting.
-
Ad hoc committee on representation & governance – the committee charge is set to expire at the end of the semester. The committees plans on asking for an extension. Jeri has received her survey results back and on initial review of the 48 people that responded, 19 people said they are appointed to their senate seat. Some of these appoints are made because no one comes forward to join the senate from their department.
EXCO worked on the agenda for the May 16 full senate meeting.
Meeting adjourned 4:14.