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Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes January 25, 2023

Wednesday, January 25, 2023
8:00-10:00am
Zoom Webinar

Senators Present (54): Peter Abramenko, Kim Acquaviva, Tony Baglioni, Aaron Bloomfield, Aniko Bodroghkozy, Cathy Campbell, Shu-Chen Chen, Matthew Chin, John Comazzi, Todd DeLong, Katia Dianina, John Dillery, Maxim Engers, Jay Fox, Jim Fitz-Gerald, Avik Ghosh, Vanessa Gregg, Jay Hirsh, Rich Hynes, Tish Jennings (Chair), Jamie Jirout, Ann Kellams, Michael Kennedy (Chair Elect), Jason Kerrigan, Brad Kesser, Susan Kirk (Past Chair), Michelle Kisliuk, James Lambert, Adria LaViolette, Matthew Lazzara, Jon Lendon, Alicia López-Operé, Stephen Macko, Katya Makarova, Alyssa Mixon, Kay Neeley, John O'Brien, Amy Ogden, Thomas Pajewski, Andy Pennock, Paul Perrin, Lisa Colosi Peterson, Anne Rotich, Sue Saliba, Patrik Sandas, James Savage, Jeri Seidman, Maria Sequeira-Lopez, Philip Smith, John Stranix, Sarah Stewart Ware, June West, Brian Wright, Jeff Young, Victor Zaydfudim

Guests Present: Taison Bell, Catherine Bradshaw, Maïté Brandt-Pearce, Jeffrey Blume, Ron Christie, Karen Dabney, Bonnie Gordon, Elisa Hu, Jim Ryan, David Singerman
Meeting Called to Order: 8:02 AM

Review and Approval of Minutes
Tish Jennings, Chair requests approval of the December 2022 Faculty Senate meeting minutes.

PASSED BY UNANIMOUS CONSENT

Nominating Committee
Susan Kirk, Nominating Committee Chair

Motion regarding time limits for candidate statements
Motion that written statements are limited to 250 words and oral statements are 3 minutes or less.
PASSED BY UNANIMOUS CONSENT

Faculty Senate BOV Representative Candidate Statements
Taison D. Bell
Bonnie Gordon
Tish Jennings
James H. Lambert
David Singerman

Statements are available on the Faculty Senate website.
The vote will take place online after the meeting. Senators will receive a unique link to complete their ballot.

New Business
Tish Jennings, Chair

Announcement of Social Event for Faculty Senators, Jeri Seidman, President of the Colonnade Club
March 23, 5:00-7:30pm
Colonnade Club, Pav VII
Sponsored by Colonnade Club and Exco

Brief discussion about community building and ongoing recovery efforts

Maïté Brandt-Pearce shared brief updated from Faculty Affairs

  • Purchased Interfolio faculty search module, will present more in the Spring, launching in Summer

  • Looking at the exit interview process

  • Speaking with Retired Faculty Association to improve involvement

  • Ongoing Faculty Development offerings available:

  • Teaching & Service Award nominations are currently being accepted

  • Planning to revise P&T policy University-wide, will engage faculty substantially in this process

  • Will begin working group to look at impact fo ChatGPT

  • Working group on evaluating teaching along with Brie Gertler, two subcommittees

    • Survey and how it should be used

    • How to think about teching evaluation more broadly

UVA Acts Presentation
Karen Dabney, Artistic Director of UVA Acts
Brief performance and discussion

UVA Acts Website
Handout from UVA Acts

UVA Research Infrastructure
Jeffrey Blume & Catherine Bradshaw
Update on the Strategic Research Infrastructure Initiative

Slides available in Box
Learn more on the Research website

President’s Report
President Jim Ryan

President Ryan shared updates on the continued response to the shooting in November.

Local

  • Continuing to provide support to those most (directly) affected.

  • Dispersing funds from UVA Strong fund to the families of the victims.

  • Continuing to stay in close contact with the families.

  • Have added personnel to threat assessment team.

  • Ongoing external review, report will likely come out late spring/early summer.

    • Have already made some changes to threat assessment process

  • Have made additional resources available to faculty and staff through FEAP

  • Criminal investigation is ongoing

Regional

  • Pulling together a task force (UVA, Charlottesville, Albemarle County) to take a holistic view on what we might do to reduce gun violence

State

  • Proposed legislation to close loophole in state law about guns on college campuses

    • Current law prohibiting firearms in state-owned buildings explicity excludes institutes of higher education

    • UVA policy prohibits firearms in dorms but it is a policy, not law (cannot get a search warrant for this)

National

  • Putting together proposal for Democracy Lab focused on mitigating gun violence

  • Similar to work on task force but with broader frame and longer timeline

If you have suggestions for individuals for the Task Force or Democrary Lab, please let President Ryan know.

Discussion/Q&A
Potential for resolution from Faculty Senate supporting this work, Tish Jennings will look into this.

Additional items in state legislature that UVA is watching, early stages for most

  • Threat assessment team reporting requirements

  • BOV update to include member of faculty and member of staff for UVA specifically

  • Legislation re: transgender athletes at all levels of sports

  • Endowments over $250M to allocate 15% of returns to institution for access/affordability

  • Itemized list for students of how tuition is used

  • Curriculum/academic programs requiring internships

  • Various bills about UVA Health

No bills about tuition currently. Virginia College and University Presidents will meet with the Governor in February, this will likely be a topic.

Meeting Adjourned: 9:57 AM
PASSED BY UNANIMOUS CONSENT

Post-Meeting Online Vote
Faculty Representative to the Board of Visitors for 2023-2024
The online vote was made available to senators from 1/25 to 1/30. The complete report is included as an attachment.
Based on the votes, the following names were submitted to the BOV by the Nominating Committee.

  • Patricia (Tish) Jennings

  • Taison Bell

  • David Singerman

Note: The results of the vote were discussed in greater detail at an emergency meeting of Exco on February 7, 2023. From this meeting, the slate of names submitted to the BOV by the Nominating Committee was changed to the following:

  1. Tish Jennings

  2. Taison Bell

  3. Jim Lambert