May 2, 2022

May 02 2022
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Meeting Minutes

ACADEMIC SENATE

Minutes

May 2, 2022

  1. CALL TO ORDER AND Announcements
    The regular meeting of the Academic Senate, held on May 2, 2022, was called to order at 3:01 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, Sharon Aiken-Wisniewski, Soheila Amirsoleimani, Gloria Aquino, Michael Battistone, Erin Beeghly, Melissa Bobick, David Bowling, Simon Brewer, Jonathan Brogaard, Kenneth Bromberg, Jen Brown, Richard Brown, Jessica Brown, Luca Brunelli, Juliet Carlisle, Owen Chan, Promothesh Chatterjee, Thomas Cheatham, Holden Cheney, Gerald Cochran, Sarah Creem-Regehr, Shanti Deemyad, Nadja Durbach, Stacy Firth, Annette Fleckenstein, Gina Frey, Sydney Gilliand, Ganesh Gopalakrishnan, Manu Goyal, Amos Guiora, Eric Handman, Sara Hart, Bill Hesterly, Anna Hodgson, John Hollerbach, Harriet Hopf, Howard Horwitz, Alexander Hyres, Luis Ibarra, Thunder Jalili, Jay Jordan, James Karner, R. James Keddington, Seth Keeton, Matti Koenig, Keith Koper, Titus Larrieu, Shane Lloyd, Jack Longino, Gabriel Lozada, Robin Marcus, Staci McIntosh, Nancy McLaughlin, Rajesh Menon, Eugene Mishchenko, Ed Muñoz, Anna Neatrour, Adrian Palmer, Marcel Paret, Robert Parker, Jeff Pettey, Tom Quinn, Emi Radetich, Kevin Rathunde, Sean Redmond, Alessandro Rigolon, Ofer Rog, Alan Rogers, Paul Shami, Xiaoming Sheng, Doug Shumway, Momina Sial, Roger Silvers, Robert Smith, Tim Smith, Brian Snapp, Ryan Steele, Sondra Stegenga , Dave Symons, Nick Tygesen , Kent Udell, Hunter Underhill, Jessica Van Der Volgen, Seetha Veeraghanta, Muskan Walia, Maeve Wall, Crystal Wallenius, Peter West, Jaclyn Winter, Susan Zickmund, Brandon Zielinski

 

Excused with substitute: Kerry Lohmier, Jaehee Yi

Absent: Rohit Aggarwal, Yoshimi Anzai, Matthew Bettini, Robert Bowles, Adrienne Cataxinos, Hilary Coon, Stuart Culver, Bradley Hunter, Srikanth Iyengar, Jeremiah Jaggers, Youjeong Kang, Audrey Laney, Mike Lewis, John Lin, Lakshan Lingam, Frank McAlpin, Kent Ono, Susie Porter, Jeff Schwartz, Taylor Sparks, Maggie Tesch, Daniel Vargo, Melodie Weller, Jessica Wojciechowski, Shundana Yusaf , Kilo Zamora

 

Ex Officio: Randy Dryer, Michael Good, Taylor Gregory, Lisa Hutton, Paul Mogren, Allyson Mower, Christina Porucznik, Sarah Projansky, Taylor Randall, Martell Teasley, Sonia Salari, Jo Scofield, Jane Laird

 

Senate President Christy Porucznik announced that, at this last meeting of the academic year, the Academic Senate expresses its gratitude to its student Senators and the Senators whose terms were ending. Serving on the Senate is a critical role, and their service needs to be acknowledged. She also noted that next year’s Senate meeting schedule was available in BoardDocs. ASUU leaders were also thanked for their contributions to the Senate over the past year.

 

  1. APPROVAL OF MINUTES
    The minutes dated April 4, 2022, were approved upon a motion Sonia Salari and a second from Shanti Deemyad.

 

  1. REQUEST FOR NEW BUSINESS

There were no requests for new business.

 

  1. CONSENT CALENDAR

Senate President Porucznik identified the items on the meeting’s Consent Calendar:

 

  1. Program Change: Name Change and Restructure World Languages and Cultures BA-Deleted and Added Emphases and Restructure of a Minor
  2. Dual Degree: Master of Science in Physician Assistant Studies / Master of Science in Gerontology (MPAS/MSG)
  3. New Academic Unit: Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery

 

Harriet Hopf moved to approve the three Consent Calendar items. The motion passed after a second from Randy Dryer. There were no Faculty Matters Reports submitted.

 

  1. SPECIAL ORDER- Annual SPEC Report and Elections

 

Senate Personnel and Elections Committee Reports and Elections

Chair Dale Larsen offered the Senate Personnel and Elections Committee (SPEC) Annual Report. He included results of the 2022-23 Senator Elections and 2022-23 Senate Committee Elections. He asked that Senators also note some remaining Senate Committee Vacancies and encouraged nominations to fill those.

 

Ken Monson, the designated SPEC member to preside over the in-meeting Senate 2022-2023 Leadership Elections, introduced Shanti Deemyad, who presented her Senate President-elect Candidate Statement. Ken then gave the electronic in-meeting elections instructions and opened the thirty-minute voting period.

 

  1. REPORTS

 

Report from Administration

University of Utah President Taylor Randall thanked Senate members for their contributions during a difficult pandemic year and highlighted UofU events of note. Commencement and all its celebrational events are coming up this next weekend. He reviewed recent UofU award and prize winners. SVP Michael Good gave progress updates on the new medical education building. Interim SVP Martell Teasley reported that May 1 enrollment deposits are up from last year.

 

Executive Committee Report

Senate President-elect Sonia Salari reported that, at the April 18 Senate Executive Committee (EC) meeting, its members placed items that required a Senate vote on the Consent Calendar for this meeting because none appeared to require a presentation and discussion. Sonia then introduced Parliamentarian Paul Mogren, who read out the Senate Resolution in Honor of Senate President Christy Porucznik. A motion to approve the Senate Resolution in Honor of Senate President Christy Porucznik passed by acclimation. The Resolution is attached to these minutes in Appendix 1.

 

Report from ASUU

There was no ASUU report for this meeting.

 

  1. Information and Recommendations Calendar

 

College of Fine Arts Charter                                                                         

The Senate Executive committee has given final approval to a revised College of Fine Arts College Charter, explained Melonie Murray, Associate Dean for Faculty & Academic Affairs. The two main areas revised were 1) clarifying details of its College Council and 2) updating College committee details to match what is current practice, plus comply with Policy 6-003.

 

Faculty Composition Report                                                                         

AVP for Faculty Sarah Projansky presented a Faculty Composition Report, as required by Policy 6-300-III-F. Her office worked with Robert Fujinami’s office in health sciences to compile data identifying tenure-line versus career-line composition for each college. They also added demographic information such gender, race, ethnicity, and indigeneity statistics. Sarah said that she is aiming to include statistics on Student Course Hours (SCH) compared to faculty categories in future reports.

 

University Committee Transparency Report                                                  

Following up on questions raised by the Senate Executive Committee and the Senate Advisory Committee on Academic Policy, Senate Policy Liaison Allyson Mower reviewed her findings on university committee transparency requirements. A discussion with the Institutional Policy Committee (IPC) and the University Policy Team (UPT) led to the conclusion that a standalone policy requiring transparency of all committees at the University of Utah was too broad of a stroke. She received confirmation/legal opinion that committees at the University of Utah

are not subject to the Utah Open and Public Meetings Act, including the Academic Senate. Only

meetings of the University of Utah Board of Trustees are subject to this act. It is possible,

however, to incorporate open/transparency language into individual policies that establish

University of Utah committees. Allyson then reviewed the recommendations identified in her report.

 

SACUSP Annual Report                                                            

Randy Dryer, Senate Advisory Committee University Strategic Planning (SACUSP) Chair, and Andrea Rorrer, Director of the Educational Policy Center, updated the Senate with a draft of SACUSP’s annual report. Randy explained that the main activity of the year had been conducting a faculty survey that aimed to collect data that supports the University’s goal of being a top-ten public university. Andrea then summarized the survey findings. Senators will be able to review the final, approved annual report and survey data in the summer.

 

Reports and Information                                                                           

Senate President Christy Porucznik noted that the following reports and notices are available on BoardDocs for review:

  1. SACSCF Annual Report
  2. New Emphases to an Existing Degree: Comprehensive Physics
  • Graduate Catalog Update Notification
  1. Online Masters Initiative Update
  2. University President April 2022 Report to Board of Trustees

 

  1. 8. SPECIAL ORDER – Annual Elections

After Parliamentarian Paul Mogren and Senate Assistant Taylor Gregory verified the results of the in-meeting electronic elections, Ken Monson announced the vote results. The 2022-2023 President-Elect and Senate Executive Committee Members roster is included in Appendix 2.

 

  1. NEW BUSINESS

There were no items for New Business

 

  1. OPEN DISCUSSION/ Academic Senate 2021-22 Closing Remarks

 

Senate President Porucznik offered closing remarks for the 2021-22 Academic Senate year. She thanked the many people who helped make Senate meetings run effectively and efficiently during the year, including the Senate Executive Committee members, Jane Laird, Taylor Gregory, Paul Mogren, Sonia Salari, Allyson Hicks, Trina Rich and Allyson Mauer. She noted that her presidency and the Senate sessions were well supported by administration, and thanked President Taylor Randall, Sarah Projansky, Bob Fujinami, Laura Snow, Laura Marks, Dan Reed, Martel, Teasley, and Mike Good.

 

How the Senate members interact is an ongoing discussion topic. From her perspective, virtual Senate meetings have been great for giving people an opportunity to share even if they are out of town. This body includes colleagues in St. George, Sandy, and the Asia campus. If shared governance is going to represent students, faculty, staff, and administrators from all UofU campuses, then there needs to be a way for everyone to participate.

 

In addition, President Porucznik offered that Senate members can do the hard things, especially if everyone works together, when facing more changes on the horizon. She highlighted the many Senate accomplishments of the year, and thanked Senate members for giving her the opportunity to experience one of the professionally rewarding experiences of her academic career.

 

  1. ADJOURNMENT
    Meeting adjourned at 4:42 pm.

 

[Note: There were no items for either the Debate or Intent Calendar for this meeting]                                                

 

 

Appendix 1

 

Resolution Recognizing Christina Porucznik
as President of the Academic Senate
University of Utah
2021-2022

 

Whereas Christy Porucznik, Professor of Public Health in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, has served as President of the Academic Senate for 2021-2022; and

Whereas she is an advocate for, a strong participant in, and a leader dedicated to the success of shared governance; and communicated effectively with the University Administration on behalf of the faculty; and

Whereas she conducted Senate meetings, with expertise and effectiveness, brought important issues to the forefront, and has shown mastery in creatively using the virtual environment to achieve Senate results; and

Whereas she brought people together to work collaboratively for optimal outcomes, and graciously recognizes the contributions of the many people who work together in the Senate on behalf of the University; and

Whereas she has presided over significant Senate actions such as honorary degree selections, the process of future University presidential searches, transparency of actions, retirement benefits, campus community physical accessibility, equity, diversity, inclusion and demonstrated leadership on the Day of Collective Action; and

Whereas her expertise in public health, was timely to benefit the University’s COVID pandemic response; and

Whereas she has been an effective and skilled Senate department head and astute steward of resources, expanding the Senate Office staff to address the Senate’s increasing responsibilities; and

Whereas she organized a historic reunion photo of former Senate Presidents, at President Randall’s inauguration; and

Whereas, in addition to her distinguished Senate Presidency, she maintained her teaching and research activities in the School of Medicine; therefore,

Be it resolved the Academic Senate lauds Christy Porucznik for a job well done as President of the Academic Senate; and

Be it further resolved that the entire University community thanks Christy for her leadership, commitment, dedication, enthusiasm, energy, diligence, hard work, and good humor.

Offered this day, the 2nd of May 2022, in Salt Lake City, Utah

 

 

Appendix 2

 

Senate Leadership May 2, 2022, Elections Results

 

2022-2023 Senate President-elect

Shanti Deemyad, Science

 

2022-2023 Senate Executive Committee Members

Howard Horwitz, Humanities

Amos Guiora, Law

Sara Hart, Nursing

Kerry Lohmeier, Libraries

Patrick Tripeny, Architecture and Planning

Seetha Veeraghanta, LEAP

Alexander Hyres, Education

Harriet Hopf, Medicine

Rebecca Utz, CSBS

Ofer Rog, Science

Tucker Hermans, Engineering

Jaclyn Winter, Pharmacy

———————————————-

Alternate: Jennifer Brown, Business