August 25th, 2025

Aug 25 2025
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Meeting Minutes

ACADEMIC SENATE

 August 25, 2025

Minutes

 

  1. CALL TO ORDER AND Announcements
    The regular meeting of the Academic Senate, held on August 26, 2025, was called to order at 3:01 pm by Senate President Richard Preiss. The meeting was held using the Zoom online meeting platform. The meeting is recorded only for the purposes of meeting minutes. Although Senate meetings are not required to be public under Utah law, the Senate has elected to conduct its business in a transparent way and all attendees are welcome.

 

Present: Taslim Al-Hilal, Elizabeth Archuleta, Donna Baluchi, Cynthia Berg , Jace Boyd, Timothy Brusseau, Ravi Chandran, Thomas Cheatham, Sydney Cheek-O’Donnell, Doug Christensen, Richard Clark, Katharine Coles, Elisabet  Curbelo González, Brigham Daniels , Marla De Jong, Therese De Raedt, Teresa DeAtley, Jeffrey Druck, Katie Durante, Lee Ellington, Nina Feng, Brooke Fernandez, Jon Fisk , Matthew Flatt, Rick Forster, Leslie Francis, Maggie French, Henry Fu, Alborz Ghandehari, Ramesh Goel, Laura Grantier, Rachel Hayes-Harb, Brenda Heaton, Teresa Hebron, David Hill, Andy Hong, Sarang Joshi, David Kieda, Sejin Kim, Peggy Kong, Rebeccah Kurzhals, Joshua  LaReaux, Mark Loewen, Lisbeth Louderback, Crystal Lumpkins, Jay Mace, Douglas Mackay, Maureen Mathison, Christine McMillan, Lacey Murphy, Curtis Newbold, Thi Nguyen, Michael Nigra, Rodrigo Noriega, Mayette Pahulu, Chris Pantelides, Sofia Perez, Bryce Perkins, Wayne Potts, Edward Quigley, Firas Rassoul-Agha, Lynn Reinke, Lorie Richards, Ariel Richer, Thomas Richmond, Marcy Rogers , Yvette Romero Coronado, Alex Rose, Suva Roy, Mike Scarpulla, Sarah Shreeves, Elizabeth Siantz, Chris Simon, Ginger Smoak, Caroline Stephens, Kathleen Strickland-Cohen, Matthew Thiese, Rhet Tucker, Norman Waitzman, Roseanne Warren, Ingrid Weinbauer, Berkley Wiseman, Rachel Wittman, Kari Woodruff, Julie Wright-Costa, Dave Young

Excused with substitute: Jack O’Leary, Paula Smith, Ken Golden

Excused: Brooke Davies, Ademuyiwa Aromolaran, Juniper Nilsson, Breann Schiffer

Absent: Rohit Aggarwal, Eli Asay, Henry Becker, Ana Sanchez Benet, Bryan Bonner, Christian Brockmann, Sarah Bush, Kennon Buss, Cameryn Coffey, Mark Crowley, Frank Drews, Pamalatera Fenn, Maddy Hadwick, Davidson Heath, Eric Herschthal, Jill Jeffe, Hailey Lawrence, Kateryna Malaia, Huong Meeks, Naomi Schlesinger, Sherin Shaaban, Oleg Starykh, Karley Swallow, David Turok, Jason Tanner

Ex Officio: Ashley Glenn, Allie Menzdorf, Angie Fagerlin, Mitzi Montoya, Sarah Projansky

Senate Officers: Harriet Hopf, Richard Preiss, Brent Milne, Allyson Mower, Paul Mogren, Jane Laird

Senate Office: Maddie Hile

 

Senate President Richard Preiss opened the first meeting of the Senate for AY26. He thanked all representatives for faculty, students, staff, and administration for participating and for sharing their experience, knowledge, energy, and support of shared governance. Preiss explained that shared governance is everyone’s mutual commitment to honoring respective roles and expertise in order to reach the best decisions for research and education at the university. The Academic Senate is not the only place at the U where shared governance happens, but it is where we model it the most visibly, where representatives inform one another, ask questions of one another, and begin constructive conversations.

The Senate appreciates the generous amount of time that leadership spends in dialogue with it during these meetings because candid, respectful, two-way communication between faculty and administration is vital to the health and function of the university.

 

He then explained the procedures and materials posted for the meeting. Senate Policy Liaison Allyson Mower is offering a short course for letter-writing advocacy, titled Influencing Decision Makers as Educators. The dates it will be offered and how to sign up for a session are noted in the handout. Senators will want to mark their calendars for the upcoming Senate Social hosted by President Randall on September 30, 4-6pm. In addition, Senate members can access and download the Senate Photo Roster, Senate Orientation Slides and Video Link, and Senate 2025-2026 Meeting Schedule

 

  1. APPROVAL OF MINUTES

 The minutes of the Senate April 28, 2025, meeting were approved upon a motion from Harriet Hopf and a second from Mark Loewen. There were 4 abstentions.

 

  1. REQUEST FOR NEW BUSINESS

Preiss explained that Senate meeting New Business items have to be submitted in writing to the President of the Senate by the Friday prior to a regular Senate meeting. Not all requests will need to be handled as New Business, which introduces only proposals for voting. A placement on that part of the agenda means that the Senate is voting on that item. At the end of each meeting, there is also an Open Discussion period. It may be that a discussion item is more appropriately brought up at that point. The Senate President will also work with the submitter to determine the best course of action for each request. No New Business was raised at the meeting.

 

  1. CONSENT CALENDAR

Senate President Preiss reviewed the Consent Calendar items:

  1. Minor Discontinuation: Global Citizenship
  2. Minor Suspension: Peace and Conflict Studies
  3. Faculty Appointments Report

The Consent Calendar was approved after a motion from Lori Richards and a second from Maureen Mathison. There was 1 abstention.

 

  1. SPECIAL ORDER

The annual appointments for the Senate offices of Parliamentarian and Policy Liaison need to be ratified by the Senate. Preiss introduced Paul Mogren, nominated to be Senate Parliamentarian for this year. Allyson Mower is the nominee for Senate Policy Liaison. Both nominees have extensive experience in these roles. Katherine Coles’ motion to approve the two nominees as Senate officers for this year passed after a second from Sidney Cheek-O’Donnell. There was 1 abstention.

         

  1. REPORTS (ADMINISTRATION; ASUU; UUSC)    

 

Report from Administration

Provost Mitzi Montoya introduced several speakers to give an update on two student success initiatives. Senior Vice Provost, Strategic Enrollment & Student Success, Paul Kohn offered an overview of the Student Experience Project. Associate Provost Vahe Bandarian also provided updates on the course scheduling adjustments being made to optimize the ability of a student to graduate in four years. He asked to collect Senators’ questions and comments made in the Zoom chat and indicated that they can also reach him directly to add comments. Troy D’Ambrosio, Chief of Staff to President Randall, also provided brief updates from that office. Bob Carter, SVP Health Sciences, could not attend this meeting but submitted a report to the Senate that highlighted notable events on the health sciences campus.

 

Chief Safety Officer Keith Squires discussed the new Utah State statute regarding concealed-carry on campus, addressing concerns about safety in labs and performance spaces.  He reviewed the safety framework that his office uses to respond to threatening situations. ASUU President Alex Rose expressed, on behalf of students, concern about the lack of communication regarding the new guidelines and the need for better education on open and concealed carry laws. Leslie Francis explained that faculty dealing with possible gun threats in the classroom needs a way to submit a request for a safety officer, in a more direct way than calling 911, that does not include verbal interaction so to avoid escalation. Upon discussion, Senators offered amendments to Francis’ request for a motion to coordinate with the CSO to develop a mechanism to accomplish that. Leslie Francis’ final motion was offered as: initiate a process or a conversation in partnership with Keith Squires and any other relevant administration officers on developing some kind of a mechanism that would work in concert with safety protocols and guidelines that allows a notification to the safety office without needing verbal interaction. After a second from Kate Coles, the motion passed with 2 abstentions. Senate President Preiss will also report back with updates on this process.

 

Chair of the Department of Economics Tom Maloney, member of the public, addressed the issue of the search for a joint Chair of Economics and QAMO, expressing optimism about its potential while also raising a concern about the potential dissolution of one or both departments and its impact on the tenure of faculty therein. Vice Provost for Faculty Sarah Projansky clarified that tenure and other faculty rights would be preserved under any restructuring, with the tenure home of existing faculty being moved to the new unit, and with pre-tenure faculty being given the right to choose the tenure guidelines by which they would be evaluated. Maloney suggested formalizing that understanding in writing and Projansky indicated her receptivity to that. Senator Norm Waitzman then queried the motivation for the joint search and the proposed establishment of a combined School of Economics, pointing to the Economics Department’s recent and strong 7-year review. He asked if the joint Chair search should be paused until the rationale and dimensions of a combined School of Economics were articulated and its formation approved by the Senate. Provost Montoya clarified that no such merger was underway yet, and that the role of the joint Chair would be to work with faculty in both departments to first develop those rationales. Any approval of a new unit would then follow the normal shared governance review process. Senator Cynthia Berg of CSBS suggested that the basis of the merger in a third-party external review represented a change in the criteria by which excellence was being measured, moving away from the tool of Academic Analytics which many Departments had been encouraged to follow. Provost Montoya explained that the review of academic excellence in Economics had been initiated at a Board of Trustees meeting several years ago, and was intended to privilege not just the results generated by for-profit companies like Academic Analytics, but the standards used by scholars in the field; Montoya further pointed out that the review evaluated not just Economics but QAMO as well. She closed by reiterating that any eventual merger of the two Departments would have to emanate from faculty.

 

Report from the Senate Executive Committee

Senate President-elect Brent Milne reviewed the items placed on the meeting’s agenda by the Senate Executive Committee during its meetings of June 9th, July 21st, and August 11th.  In addition, this summer the Executive Committee took the following actions under its summer authority to advance a limited number of appropriate initiatives:

 

Provisional Summer Authority Actions

  1. Policy 6-309 and Rule R6-309A Revisions: Postdoctoral Fellows
  2. HB 265 Compliance Program Sunset List
  • SACUSP Member Nominations
  1. SCHC Chair Training Nomination

 

He reviewed each item also. The HB 265 Compliance Program Sunset List was a bulk discontinuation list of low- or no-enrollment programs, employed to assist in not only complying with first phase HB 265 strategic reinvestment requirements, but also in regularly reviewing and maintaining a relevant academic catalog. The 82 programs were reviewed by the Undergraduate Council and the Graduate Council, as well as by the cognizant deans and department chairs. The Senate Executive Committee pulled one program, the Screen Performance Certificate, to undergo another review, such as with the Theater Department faculty, and approved the other 81 programs.

 

Milne also asked Senate members interested in contributing to the development of a Senate Handbook based on the upcoming policy changes to contact him. This project will seek to be a ready reference for Senators that will codify longstanding Senate procedures and practices

 

Report from ASUU

ASUU President Alex Rose explained that he plans to bring to the Senate reports that focus on two areas this year: ASUU activity updates and student concerns that the ASUU presidency has heard. For this report, he highlighted upcoming student townhall events and homecoming plans. Student concerns that have been expressed, although he noted he cannot verify the accuracy of these, are syllabi that are not translated into different languages and the difficulty of locating feminine hygiene products on lower campus. Senate President Preiss offered to meet with Alex and Vice Provost for Student Success Chase Hagood to look at the syllabi concerns.

 

Report from UUSC

University of Utah Staff Council President Allie Menzdorf relayed that UUSC had its first meeting of the year and is busy working in collaboration with HR on this year’s Employee Appreciation Day. The Council is also very interested in finding more avenues of collaboration with the Senate this year.

 

  1. INTENT CALENDAR

There were no items on the Intent Calendar.

 

  1. DEBATE CALENDAR

 

Health and Medical Writing Certificate

Maureen Mathison, Department of Writing and Rhetoric Studies, introduced a proposal for a new 20-credit hour undergraduate certificate in Health and Medical Writing, which will provide students with durable skills. Students will be trained in scientific writing for health and medical industries. There is industry demand for this skill, and the program would be of interest to not only writing students, but to any student looking to supplement their current major to expand job opportunities. Kate Coles moved to approve the Certificate. After a second from Mark Loewen, the motion passed.

 

New Center: Center for Education, Wellbeing, and School-Based Health Partnerships

A proposal for a new Center for Education, Wellbeing, and School-Based Health Partnerships was summarized by Aaron Fischer, its Executive Director.  It is a collaborative effort between the College of Education, the Department of Psychiatry, and the Department of Pediatrics. These services will fill an existing gap and help support school mental health partnerships address the full health for a child, both for the services provided to them as well as to the community. Members pointed out interdisciplinary opportunities exist to work with the College of Health and the School of Dentistry. Mark Loewen’s motion to approve the proposal passed after a second from Marci Rogers.

 

New Minor: Business Artificial Intelligence

Chong Oh, Director of the Undergraduate IS Program for the David Eccles School of Business, and Nitin Bakshi, Department Chair of Operations & Information Systems, presented a new minor that focuses on the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for business applications. They explained that AI ethics are embedded in the courses that will be offered and there are no restrictions on adding interdisciplinary courses to the minor in the future. As the minor evolves, it is open to having even more collaboration and meeting best practices for ethics education for the field.

 

Senate President Preiss commented that this proposal was the first of its kind to come to the Senate and so the idea of different colleges offering field-specific AI coursework prompts extra discussion to ensure these offerings are coordinated with and supported by the Responsible AI Office. Discussion centered on the larger issue of how AI programs at the UofU need to include a well-rounded education on AI ethics and consequent social issues, in addition to how to ensure that multiple offerings in the field from other parts of the academic campus are not duplicative. Some Senators advocated that student training in AI ethics and social justice issues be a prime objective of this and any other academic programs aimed at AI education. In addition, some Senators indicated that having a separate AI ethics and social impact course is the best option when developing AI academic programs, while others believed that having ethics and social issues embedded in the courses offered was a more effective pedagogy. Preiss thanked the Senate for its thorough discussion about the minor and the larger issues for other AI programs at the university. A good amount of intellectual progress on this topic was achieved.

 

Based on the above discussion, Vice Provost for Student Success Chase Hagood offered that following up by asking not only a standing Senate committee to examine the larger issues posed, but tasking the Undergraduate Council to set forth recommendations as the first lever when these programs are proposed seemed the best next step.

 

Harriet Hopf’s motion to approve the proposal, with an advisory to incorporate in the curriculum, in substantive ways, some consideration of the ethical, environmental, and social justice implications of AI technology, was seconded by Mark Loewen. There was no vote due to lack of quorum. Preiss explained that the proposal vote would then be conducted electronically so that it would be handled in an expeditious manner. He asked Senators to look for an email with the motion and the link to the voting ballot.

 

Post-Meeting Electronic Vote Results: The electronic vote ballot with the motion and the link was sent to Senators by email on August 27. The following was approved with 73 in favor, 5 opposed, and 1 abstention: The Senate approves the new Minor in Business AI (Artificial Intelligence), with an advisory to incorporate into the curriculum in substantive ways some consideration of the ethical, environmental, and social justice implications of AI technology

 

 

  1. INFORMATION AND RECOMMENDATIONS CALENDAR

 

Follow Up on Delivery of April 28 Senate Letter to Utah Legislative Delegation

Senate Past President Harriet Hopf reported that in response to 22 UofU students getting their visas revoked, the AY25 Academic Senate unanimously approved a letter to Utah Congressional Delegation recognizing their efforts to assist the students and offering collaboration to support the U’s international community. Opening a new line of communication, the letter was delivered to Jessica Christopher, State Deputy Director of Senator Mike Lee’s office. Hopf and Christopher also plan a collaboration to create an opportunity for an international student to intern in that office, specializing in visa-related issues

 

Information and Reports  

Senate President Preiss pointed to the reports and information items included in the meeting materials:

  1. Appointment of Senate Standing Committee Chairs 2025-2026
  2. Graduate Council Seven-year Reviews
    1. School of Computing
    2. School of Biological Sciences
    3. Department of History
    4. Department of Biochemistry
  • Unit Administrative Change: Medical Humanities Minor Transfer to Philosophy
  1. Emphasis Suspension: Mining Engineering BS
  2. Emphasis Discontinuation: Environmental Geoscience
  3. Emphasis Suspension: Music History and Literature
  • New Emphasis: Civil Engineering BS
  • Senate Advisory Committee on Student, Faculty, and Staff Success (SACSFSS) UUSC Member
  1. SFESOM College Charter
  2. Eccles Health Library Charter
  3. BOT Administration Report Aug 2025
  • BOT Administration Report Jun 2025
  • BOT Administration Report May 2025
  • Senate Report to Board of Trustees Report May 2025
  1. Senate Report to the Board of Trustees Aug 2025
  • UACI New Members Consultation

 

  1. NEW BUSINESS

There was no New Business at this meeting.

 

  1. OPEN DISCUSSION

There was no Open Discussion at this meeting.

 

  1. ADJOURNMENT

Meeting adjourned at 5:48 pm.