August 30, 2021

Aug 30 2021
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Meeting Minutes

ACADEMIC SENATE

Minutes

August 30, 2021

  1. CALL TO ORDER AND WELCOME
    The regular meeting of the Academic Senate, held on August 30, 2021, was called to order at 3:00 pm by Senate President Christy Porucznik. As had been announced on the Senate website and by email, this meeting was held using the Zoom online meeting platform due to COVID-19 pandemic conditions. Attendance was confirmed by requiring Senate members (and invited guests and public attendees) to register in advance for the online meeting.

 

Present: Michael Abrahamson, Serena Aeschilman, Rohit Aggarwal, Sharon Aiken-Wisniewski, Soheila Amirsoleimani, Yoshimi Anzai, Gloria Aquino, Michael Battistone, Erin Beeghly, Matthew Bettini, Melissa Bobick, Robert Bowles, David Bowling, Jonathan Brogaard, Kenneth Bromberg, Richard Brown, Jen Brown, Jessica Brown, Luca Brunelli, Erin Castro, Adrienne Cataxinos, Owen Chan, Divya Chandrasekhar, Promothesh Chatterjee, Thomas Cheatham, Holden Cheney, Gerald Cochran, Hilary Coon, Sarah Creem-Regehr, Stuart Culver, Shanti Deemyad, Nadja Durbach, Stacy Firth, Annette Fleckenstein, Gina Frey, Sydney Gilliand, Manu Goyal, Lela Graybill, Amos Guiora, Eric Handman, Sara Hart, Bill Hesterly, Anna Hodgson, John Hollerbach, Harriet Hopf, Howard Horwitz, Bradley Hunter, Alexander Hyres, Luis Ibarra, Jeremiah Jaggers, Thunder Jalili, Jay Jordan, Youjeong Kang, James Karner, R. James Keddington, Seth Keeton, Matti Koenig, Audrey Laney, Mike Lewis, John Lin, Shane Lloyd, Kerry Lohmeier, Jack Longino, Gabriel Lozada, Robin Marcus, Frank McAlpin, Staci McIntosh, Nancy McLaughlin, Christopher Mead, Rajesh Menon, Eugene Mishchenko, Ed Muñoz, Anna Neatrour, Kent Ono, Adrian Palmer, Marcel Paret, Robert Parker, Jeff Pettey, Susie Porter, Tom Quinn, Emi Radetich, Sean Redmond, Alessandro Rigolon, Ofer Rog, Paul Shami, Xiaoming Sheng, Doug Shumway, Roger Silvers, Tim Smith, Brian Snapp, Taylor Sparks, Ryan Steele, Dave Symons, Maggie Tesch, Kent Udell, Hunter Underhill, Jessica Van Der Volgen, Muskan Walia, Melodie Weller, Peter West, Jaclyn Winter, Jessica Wojciechowski, Jaehee Yi, Susan Zickmund, Brandon Zielinski

Excused: Ganesh Gopalakrishnan

Excused with substitute: Keith Koper, Momina Sial

Absent: Simon Brewer, Juliet Carlisle, Cindy Fierros, Srikanth Iyengar, Titus Larrieu, Connor Leeming, Lakshan Lingam, Kelly MacArthur, Jeff Schwartz, Daniel Vargo, Crystal Wallenius

Ex Officio: Randy Dryer, Robert Fujinami, Michael Good, Lisa Hutton, Jane Laird, Paul Mogren, Allyson Mower, Christina Porucznik, Sarah Projansky, Taylor Randall, Daniel Reed, Sonia Salari, Jo Scofield

 

Senate President Christy Porucznik welcomed Senate members to the first meeting of the 2021-2022 academic year, reminding everyone that Senate meetings are public meetings even when held on Zoom. Senate leaders had fielded many questions in August about the Utah state laws and Utah Board of Higher Education policies that govern an educational institution’s presidential search process. She introduced explanatory slides, authored by the University of Utah Policy Officer Allyson Hicks, summarizing the decision-making processes and faculty input opportunities during the recent search.

 

  1. APPROVAL OF MINUTES
    The minutes dated April 26, 2021, were approved upon a motion from Harriet Hopf and a second by Sonia Salari, with 20 abstentions.

 

  1. REQUEST FOR NEW BUSINESS

Senate President Porucznik reported that she had received one request for New Business from Senator Gabriel Lozada.

 

4.CONSENT CALENDAR  

The Senate Executive Committee had approved placing some agenda items, which would usually be on the Senate Debate Calendar for a vote, to instead be presented on the Senate Consent Calendar. These items would be those that did not appear to be controversial, nor have any procedural or content issues. For this Senate meeting, the following proposals were placed on the Consent Calendar:

 

  • Senate Consolidated Hearing Committee Nominees for Panel Chair Training
  • Undergraduate Minor in Business Analytics

 

Also on the Consent Calendar were the Faculty Matters reports which included:

  • Resignations, Administrative and Faculty Appointments
  • Career-line, Adjunct and Visiting Faculty Appointments
  • Emeritus Appointments

 

Christy explained that items on the Consent Calendar can be pulled to the regular agenda if a Senator would like to discuss it further. Senator Jay Jordan asked to pull item 4c (as listed on the Senate agenda) for discussion. Randy Dryer’s motion to approve items a, b, d, and e of the Consent Calendar was approved after a second from Amos Guiora.

 

At a later point in the meeting, Christy relayed that Jay had withdrawn his request to discuss an item on the Consent Calendar, and she asked for a new motion. Randy Dryer submitted a revised motion to approve all items on the Consent Calendar. This passed after a second from Amos Guiora.

 

  1. SPECIAL ORDER
  2. Annual Appointments for Senate Leadership – Parliamentarian and Policy Liaison

A motion from Ryan Steele, seconded by Randy Dryer, to approve the appointments of Allyson Mower, to Senate Policy Liaison, and Paul Mogren, to Senate Parliamentarian, was passed unanimously.

 

  1. REPORTS

 

  1. Report from Administration

Christy Porucznik welcomed University President Taylor Randall, who updated members on the current Presidential transition plans. A 20-member transition team will set a 200-day plan for President Randall to ensure outreach to and input from the community, including the University and the external community as well. He and SVP Daniel Reed also discussed a recent Utah State Legislature development that will allow the University to require students, who do not have an exemption, to be vaccinated against COVID 19 in order to attend classes.  They asked faculty to remind students to check their emails to get all the information and updates. SVP Michael Good reported that issues such as workforce shortages and a growing amount of COVID patients are warning signs that there will be problems handling the recent COVID 19 case increase on the part of the University of Utah Health Sciences campus and its hospitals and clinics.

 

  1. Executive Committee Report: Summer Recess Authority Actions

Senate President-elect Sonia Salari reviewed the summer recess authority actions of the Senate Executive Committee. Timing issues required the following items to be provisionally approved on behalf of the Senate in the months that it did not meet:

 

  1. Undergraduate Certificate in Environmental Humanities and Transformative Justice
  2. New Graduate Degree: Master of Science in Cybersecurity Management
  • Name Change-University Connected Learning
  1. Continue Virtual Meeting Procedures/Decommission Special Committee
  2. June 7, 2021, Faculty Matters Reports
  3. Digital Photography Minor Name Change

 

All proposal documents had been posted to BoardDocs, and she explained that if a Senator saw any issues with an item, it could be pulled to the regular agenda for discussion.

 

  1. Report from ASUU
    Jessica Wojciechowski, ASUU President, introduced herself and expressed her support for the recent Utah state legislation that allows the University to require that students, who did not have an exemption, be vaccinated in order to attend. The ASUU leadership has been working hard to make sure students can come back to school as safely as possible. She asked that anyone with questions to contact her or the ASUU Vice Presidents.

 

  1. NOTICE OF INTENT CALENDAR

 

  1. Interim Policy 6-407: General Student Fees

Mark Winter, AVP for Budget and Planning, explained that Interim President Mike Good had authorized a new Interim Policy 6-407, General Student Fees, effective July 1, 2021, in accord with University Policy 1-001 (III.4.d). The interim implementation was put in place to comply with a revised Board of Higher Education General Student Fee policy by its deadline. Mark identified the key areas of policy changes and welcomed discussion. Senators were asked to inform their colleagues of these and communicate any feedback. He noted that he would bring this item back to the Senate at its next meeting to get approval for a final policy.

 

  1. DEBATE CALENDAR

 

  1. Center for Reproductive and Sexual Health Access, Science, Coverage, Equity, iNnovation and Training (ASCENT)

David Turok, Division of Family Planning Chief, reviewed a proposal to permanently establish the Center for Reproductive and Sexual Health Access, Science, Coverage, Equity, iNnovation and Training (ASCENT). ASCENT has a history of research and community education. The purpose of asking for permanent status is so the Center can expand collaborations and funding needed to reduce sexual and reproductive health access barriers for vulnerable populations in Utah. It has already received significant funding, and its governance board will follow the requirements of the recently updated Rule 6-001. A motion to approve the ASCENT proposal from Sonia Salari passed after a second from Brian Snapp.

 

  1. Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Chief of the current Division of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R), David Steinberg, went through the reasons why it is time that this division transitions to departmental status at the School of Medicine (SOM). It has been an independent division since 1965, and exhibits stable and growing financial resources, faculty resources and staff resources. It meets the SOM’s criteria for departmental status, and this change is widely supported. Bob Fujinami offered a motion to approve the proposal. After a second from Yoshimi Anzai, the motion passed.

 

  1. INFORMATION AND RECOMMENDATIONS CALENDAR

 

  1. Graduate Council Seven-Year Reviews

Associate Dean of the Graduate School Katie Ullman introduced the reports of four Graduate Council seven-year reviews:

  1. College of Nursing PhD and Gerontology Programs
  2. Eccles School of Business School-wide Programs
  • Department of City and Metropolitan Planning
  1. Department of Health, Kinesiology, and Recreation

 

As required by the Utah Board of Higher Education, every program and its associated degrees are reviewed every seven years by the Graduate Council through internal and external evaluations. Complete final reports are shared with the Academic Senate and include data, insights, findings and recommendations.

 

  1. Doctor of Physical Therapy Program Change

The highly ranked University of Utah Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) degree program is expanding. The Utah Legislature has appropriated funding to allow for the development and implementation of a satellite DPT program in St. George, Utah. Catherine Ortega, the St. George onsite Program Director, detailed the expansion proposal, explaining that it reflects the desire of the State of Utah to increase the amount and diversity of trained health care providers in underserved areas of the state. This expansion will also allow Utah residents to pay in-state tuition in lieu of attending out-of-state programs in the region.

 

  1. Master of Science in Clinical Investigation, Global Health Innovation and Technology Emphasis

Program co-directors Julie Shakib and Anthea Letsou discussed the foundations and goals of a new emphasis for the Master of Science in Clinical Investigation (MSCI), currently offered by the School of Medicine (SOM). The MSCI is an interdepartmental effort that is financially and administratively supported by the Utah Center for Clinical and Translations Science. The goals of offering a Global Health Innovation and Technology (GHIT) emphasis are to train students in biomedical and research innovation, and to address global health issues and national health issues. The curriculum is integrative with the existing MSCI program but expands student training opportunities in applied science and global health problems. This field is growing, and the emphasis will also be offered at extended campuses.

 

  1. Guideline 1-012B University Non-discrimination Policy

Jess Morrison, Associate Director of the Office of Equal Opportunity & Affirmative Action, presented a recently revised Guideline 1-012B. Revisions were intended to clarify aspects of Policy 1-012 University Non- Discrimination Policy (concerning sexual discrimination and misconduct) and its attendant Rules related to Procedure Advisors and Support Persons—who are allowed to attend complaint proceedings held under Interim Rule 1-012. Persons who have a potential conflict of interest will not be able to serve in those roles during 1-102B hearings.

 

  1. Vice President Equity Diversity and Inclusion Report

Mary Ann Villarreal, Vice President for Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion (EDI), updated Senators on the vision and approach that the EDI office has determined, along with information about shared equity leadership and the newly formed EDI Strategy Council. The EDI division will be focusing on the equity part of the term Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion in the next three years because shared equity leadership practices across the University will be an important facet of dismantling persistent unequal systems. The EDI division will be establishing an EDI Strategy Council comprised of a point of contact/lead person from each college, division unit, and organization. This council’s goal will be to align university-wide efforts to meet the EDI goals of the UofU Strategy Refresh 2025.

 

  1. Interim Rule R1-011A: Body Worn Cameras Regulation

Interim Rule R1-011A, Body Worn Cameras Regulation, had been signed by Interim President Good earlier in the summer and was currently in effect. Brian Nicholls, Special Assistant to the Chief Safety Officer, Jason Hinojosa, Deputy Chief of UofU Police, and Keith Squires, Interim Chief Safety Officer, explained the necessity of establishing an Interim Rule. Issues facing the office of the Chief Safety Office included noting that a failure to abide by industry standards creates potential legal exposure. Also, the equipment has been purchased, but cannot be utilized, per Utah State Law, until the University sets a policy or rule about using body-worn cameras containing regulations about usage, sharing, and storage. The team reviewed key features and explained that they will be back with a permanent policy proposal for Senate approval. The benefits of utilizing body-worn cameras include improving accountability and transparency. This Interim Rule had also been approved by the Surveillance System Administrators Committee (SSAC). Brian asked for faculty and student feedback that could be incorporated prior to bringing the final proposed Rule version back to the Senate later this Fall.

 

  1. Information and Reports

Christy Porucznik explained that additional information reports received, and resources developed, over the summer were available for Senators’ review on BoardDocs:

 

  1. SACUSP Final Annual Report
  2. Course Fee Annual Report
  • University Teaching Committee Annual Report
  1. New Senator Orientation 2021-2022 Recording and Slides
  2. 2021-2022 Senate Photo Roster
  3. Appointment of Senate standing committee chairs 2021-2022
  • UofU President’s Report to Board of Trustees June 2021
  • UofU President’s Report to Board of Trustees August 2021

 

  1. NEW BUSINESS

Senator Gabriel Lozada told Senate members that, as an economics professor with expertise in this area, he is concerned about the recent changes to the UofU retirement plans. He asked that if anyone knew of other employees that shared his concerns, would they give them his contact information.

 

ADJOURNMENT
Meeting adjourned at 5:17 pm.