November 3, 2025

Nov 03 2025
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Meeting Minutes

ACADEMIC SENATE

November 3, 2025

Minutes

 

  1. CALL TO ORDER AND Announcements
    The regular meeting of the Academic Senate, held on November 3, 2025, was called to order at 3:00 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: Rohit Aggarwal, Taslim Al-Hilal, Elizabeth Archuleta, Ademuyiwa Aromolaran, Donna Baluchi, Cynthia Berg , Timothy Brusseau, Sarah Bush, Ravi Chandran, Thomas Cheatham, Sydney Cheek-O’Donnell, Doug Christensen, Richard Clark, Cameryn Coffey, Katharine Coles, Mark Crowley, Elisabet  Curbelo González, Brigham Daniels , Marla De Jong, Therese De Raedt, Teresa DeAtley, Frank Drews, Jeffrey Druck, Katie Durante, Lee Ellington, Nina Feng, Pamalatera Fenn, Jon Fisk , Matthew Flatt, Rick Forster, Leslie Francis, Maggie French, Henry Fu, Alborz Ghandehari, Ramesh Goel, Ken Golden, Laura Grantier, Rachel Hayes-Harb, Davidson Heath, Davidson Heath, Brenda Heaton, Teresa Hebron, Eric Herschthal, David Hill, Andy Hong, Jill Jeffe, Sarang Joshi, David Kieda, Sejin Kim, Peggy Kong, Rebeccah Kurzhals, Hailey Lawrence, Mark Loewen, Lisbeth Louderback, Crystal Lumpkins, Douglas Mackay, Maureen Mathison, Christine McMillan, Lacey Murphy, Michael Nigra, Juniper Nilsson, Rodrigo Noriega, Mayette Pahulu, Chris Pantelides, Xiaoxia Peng, Wayne Potts, Edward Quigley, Firas Rassoul-Agha, Lynn Reinke, Lorie Richards, Ariel Richer, Thomas Richmond, Marcy Rogers , Yvette Romero Coronado, Suva Roy, Breann Schiffer, Naomi Schlesinger, Sherin Shaaban, Sarah Shreeves, Elizabeth Siantz, Ginger Smoak, Oleg Starykh, Caroline Stephens, Karley Swallow, Jason Tanner, Rhet Tucker, David Turok, Norman Waitzman, Roseanne Warren, Berkley Wiseman, Rachel Wittman, Kari Woodruff, Robert Wuebker, Dave Young

Excused with proxy: Chris Simon, Julie Wright-Costa, Kathleen Strickland-Cohen, Jack O’Leary

Excused: Henry Becker, Kennon Buss

Absent: Eli Asay, Ana Sanchez Benet, Bryan Bonner, Jace Boyd, Christian Brockmann, Brooke Davies, Teppo Felin, Brooke Fernandez, Maddy Hadwick, Joshua LaReaux, Jay Mace, Kateryna Malaia, Huong Meeks, Curtis Newbold, Thi Nguyen, Sofia Perez, Bryce Perkins, Alex Rose, Mike Scarpulla, Paula Smith, Matthew Thiese, Ingrid Weinbauer

Ex Officio: Bob Carter, Ashley Glenn, Angie Fagerlin, Sarah Projansky, Taylor Randall

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

Senate Office: Maddie Hile, Bailey Lavallee

 

Senate President Preiss reported that the weapons permit security check widget pilot program is underway, and the Senate will continue to be advised on progress. The Senate Ad Hoc Committee on University Service has now been formed; its members represent nearly all academic units. On behalf of the UofU Academic Senate, he and Senate Program Coordinator Maddie Hile organized an inaugural meeting with Big 12 faculty senate leadership peers to discuss shared institutional academic governance and academic freedom. Participation was robust and the group will meet again in the Spring term.

 

  1. APPROVAL OF MINUTES

Upon a motion from Harriet Hopf, seconded by Kate Coles, the revised August 25, 2025, Senate meeting minutes were approved. There was 1 abstention.

 

 After a second from Tim Brusseau, the September 29, 2025, meeting minutes were approved upon a motion from Brent Mine.

 

  1. REQUEST FOR NEW BUSINESS

There were no requests for New Business for this meeting.

 

  1. CONSENT CALENDAR

Senate President Preiss reviewed the Consent Calendar items for the meeting:

  1. Faculty Appointments Report
  2. Policy 6-401: Students of the University Revision
  3. College of Nursing Program Proposals
    1. Doctor of Nursing Practice
    2. Acute Care Pediatric Nurse Practitioner CRG
  • Neonatal Nurse Practitioner CRG
  1. Primary Care Pediatric Nurse Practitioner CRG
  2. Post-MS Graduate Certificate: Leadership in Health Systems and Practice.
  3. Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner CRG
  • Adult/Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner CRG
  • Family Nurse Practitioner CRG
  1. Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner CRG
  2. Nurse Midwifery CRG
  1. Dance Program Title Changes
  2. Name Change: MFA in Dance and Choreography
  3. Name Change: Minor in Dance
  • Name Change: Contemporary Dance BFA
  1. Name Change: Dance Teaching BFA

All Consent Calendar items were approved after a motion from Caroline Stephens and a second from Tom Cheatham.

 

  1. REPORTS (ADMINISTRATION; SENATE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE; ASUU; UUSC)    

 

Report from Administration

University of Utah President Taylor Randall began by acknowledging receipt of the Senate’s letter of September 30th, promising a formal response. He reiterated the public announcement of the Utah Promise Scholarships, which would give four years of tuition and fees to individuals with a 3.5 or above secondary school GPA, from families with less than $100,000 annual household income. He discussed AAU meetings in Washington D.C., reminding the Senate that the Trump administration’s academic compact had not yet been extended to the U of U, but promising to confer with campus constituents should that change. He noted the University’s new $50M partnership with NVIDIA, HP, and the Huntsman Family Foundation to build scalable A.I computing capacity on campus. He also noted the University’s AAU-partnered “Winning” marketing campaign, as well as the ongoing federal government shutdown and his hope for renewed support for research funding in Congress. He congratulated EVPHS Bob Carter on induction to the National Academy of Medicine, and congratulated the University’s advancement team for its increase in fundraising. He then took questions on scholarships, affirming that their total number would be determined by eligibility rather than be fixed in advance, and crediting fundraising success alongside a restructuring of existing scholarships for making them possible.

 

EVPHS Carter then shared highlights from Health Sciences, beginning with a recent UHealth retreat and an upcoming Health Sciences retreat, clarifying therein the distinction between the University’s academic medical enterprise and its health system. The former retreat thematized the need of the Health System to expand beyond its current purview of Hospitals and Clinics. He discussed a recent event at Hunter High School in West Valley, part of an ongoing initiative to promote medical careers to high school students and target them for internships in the health care system. He elaborated on talks with the Idaho legislature to open a branch of the Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine in Idaho, whose students would be funded by that state but would take U of U degrees. Acknowledging President Randall’s congratulations for his induction, he expressed the desire to identify more candidates for nomination to the National Academy, and concluded by commending Claire Wolfman, a MPH graduate, for winning a Fulbright scholarship, as well as the School of Dentistry’s recruitment of dentists to participate in its Mobile Dentist Clinic outreach program.

 

Vice Provost for Student Success Chase Hagood then presented an overview of revisions to Policy 6-100, whose phased review by the Senate was scheduled to begin at the next Senate meeting. Noting the length of time since the policy had been updated, the diverse constitution of the working group that had drafted it, and the iterative process of faculty consultation to which the draft had been subjected since, he picked out four significant changes: enrollment thresholds for course sections; standardized time blocks for course scheduling; extending the withdrawal deadline to later in the semester; and clarifying the academic calendar. He thanked his team and took questions. Senator Lorie Richards asked about new limitations on intensive courses shorter than half a semester and was assured there would be none; she then asked about training for graduate student teachers who arrive on campus expected to teach, and was told that most institutions schedule such training concurrently. In addition to suggesting that the Graduate Assembly be consulted, Senator Leslie Francis asked for a list of the peer institutions whose similar policies had been used as benchmarks; Vice Provost Hagood agreed, and assured her he was scheduling with the Graduate Assembly. Senator Tom Richmond urged the distinction between graduate student TAs and instructors of record. In response to a question from Senator Cynthia Berg about the standardized treatment of student absences, Hagood stated that autonomy would remain with the individual instructor. Senator Dave Kieda asked about the implications of enrollment minimums on advanced undergraduate classes; Hagood observed that the goal of the many exceptions to those minimums for which the policy provided was to enable a balance between efficiency and specialization. While the exact enrollment minimum numbers for upper and lower division courses remained up for debate, he reiterated that individual departments would retain final say over their course-by-course application. Senator Kate Coles pointed out some of the constraining effects of standardized time blocks, which often throw undergraduate and graduate courses into competition, and urged greater flexibility; Hagood agreed to look into it further. Senate President Preiss encouraged faculty to participate vigorously in the upcoming review process.

 

Finally, Caren Frost, Associate Vice President for Research Integrity and Compliance, presented new government-mandated security requirements for eligibility to receive federal research funding, which would entail training sessions for affected faculty. She discussed a range of potential concerns, from financial conflicts of interest to malign foreign talent recruitment, and listed the numerous federal departments and agencies (NIH, NSF, Agriculture, Defense, Education) that now required certification of completed screening and training. To that end, she explained, the NSF has developed a single, modular training platform designed to satisfy all these standards. The University’s Office of Research Education, in turn, has developed a streamlined, durable version of that platform, to place less burden on faculty time and to store faculty certification records for them. Stressing the compliance deadline (both for faculty and institutional policy revision) of December 2025, she encouraged faculty to contact her office. She clarified that such certification would hereafter need to be presented at the time of application for funding. She also noted the confusing implications for this of the current federal government shutdown.

 

Report from the Senate Executive Committee

Senate President-elect Brent Milne reviewed the meeting’s agenda item placements identified by the Senate Executive Committee (EC) at its October 20 meeting, additionally expressing appreciation for the supportive participation of administration members in discussing academic concern questions. He asked Senators to be aware of an upcoming increase in curriculum proposal volume and reminded them of the Senate-sponsored political advocacy workshop schedule.

 

Report from ASUU

No ASUU report was given at this meeting.

 

Report from UUSC

No UUSC report was given at this meeting.

 

  1. INTENT CALENDAR

There were no items on the Intent Calendar.

 

  1. DEBATE CALENDAR

 

New Program: BS English Education

Matthew Potolsky, Associate Chair, Department of English, introduced a proposal for a new BS degree in English Education. It combines training in computer programming and digital humanities with traditional training in English Language Arts and Pedagogy. Among the benefits of the new degree are simplified requirements that will speed up degree completion, additional avenues for computer and STEM majors interested in secondary teaching and modernizing updates to English teaching degrees. Maureen Mathison’s motion to approve this program proposal passed after a second from Kate Coles.

 

New Program:  BA/BS Health and Human Services

The College of Social Work proposes a new BA/BS in Health and Human Services in response to Utah’s current issues with workforce gaps in behavioral health and human services. Jason Castillo, its Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, explained that it is supported by the College of Education, College of Health, College of Nursing, College of Social and Behavioral Science, School for Cultural and Social Transformation, and Utah Department of Health and Human Services. The 120-credit hour degree is a cross-disciplinary and skill-based program that prepares graduates to work across health, behavioral health, and social service systems. Senators expressed concerns about the program’s title, suggesting it might be too similar to federal agencies, and questioned whether the degree could impact other existing interdisciplinary programs at the U with similar content and goals. Sydney Cheek-O’Donnell moved to approve the BA/BS in Health and Human proposal. After a second from Mark Loewen, the motion passed with 1 opposed and 9 abstentions.

 

New Program: BS Neurosciences

Sarah Creem-Regehr, Chair of the Psychology Department, Fred Adler, Director of the School of Biological Sciences, and Jacqueline Walsh-Snow, Director of the Neuroscience major, summarized a proposal for a new interdisciplinary neuroscience major. The major was developed by a collaborative faculty committee representing both the College of Social and Behavioral Science and College of Science. The major includes course maps for the B.S., B.A., and pre-med tracks. Supporting departments include Math, Chemistry, Philosophy, Linguistics, and the Neuroscience PhD program. After a second from Richard Clark, Kate Coles’ motion to approve the new program passed. There was 1 abstention.

New Certificate Program: Religion, Media, and Journalism

LaRisa Anderson-Horne, Department of Communication Assistant Professor, presented a new interdisciplinary certificate from the Department in partnership with the Religious Studies program. The Certificate’s 22-23 credit hour curriculum is from both the programs and an interdisciplinary list of electives. Kate Coles’ motion to approve the new certificate passed after a second from Maureen Mathison.

 

  1. INFORMATION AND RECOMMENDATIONS CALENDAR

 

Athletics Director Report

Athletics Director Mark Harlan reported the excellent academic metrics for GPA attainment and graduation success rates for UofU athletes. He also offered national updates in college sports, such as the recently formed College Sports Commission (CSC) and expanded revenue sharing opportunities with athletes. Faculty Athletics Representative Jason Burrow-Sánchez offered that the department would follow up on suggestions to better coordinate academic schedules and athletics’ practice schedules.

 

New Policy 1-022: Strategic Reinvestment

Allison Nicholson, Chief of Staff to the Chief Financial Officer, discussed new Policy 1-022: Strategic Reinvestment, developed to bring the University in compliance with Utah HB 265. The Policy includes formalizing University procedures in following its existing policies, frameworks, and strategies in implementing the required Strategic Reinvestment Plan. The Plan implementation, following the Policy’s procedures, will happen over three fiscal years and sunset on June 30, 2028 (end of FY2028). The Policy was reviewed by the CFO’s Office, the President’s Office, the Office of Faculty, the University Regulations Office, and the Office of General Counsel.

 

Staff Employment Policy Revisions: Policy 5-001, Policy 5-108, and related policies

Jeff Herring, Chief Human Resources Officer, and Bob Thompson, Senior Director Employee Relations, reviewed proposed changes to policies related to staff probationary periods and transfers. Updates for Policy 5-001, Policy 5-108, and other related policies, aim to standardize 12-month probationary periods and align pay grades across campus.

 

Information and Reports

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

  1. Engineering College Charter
  2. Graduate School Seven-year Reviews:
    1. Mechanical Engineering (2024-25)
    2. Environmental Humanities (2024-25)

 

  1. NEW BUSINESS

There were no requests for New Business for this meeting.

 

  1. OPEN DISCUSSION

There was no Open Discussion at this meeting.

 

  1. ADJOURNMENT

Meeting adjourned at 5:26 pm.