May 7, 2018
Dear Chair Thompson and Board of Trustees Members:
I appreciate this chance to submit a brief review of the activities that the Faculty Senate has been engaged in during the 2017-2018 academic year. This review focuses primarily on the activities of the various Senate committees and their significance on the Central Washington University community.
Executive Committee:
The Executive Committee has always functioned to facilitate Senate business and to provide support and coordination for the other Senate committees. This has primarily been accomplished with liaisons to each standing committee and taskforce. Because of this, the Executive Committee has often played some role in many of the Standing Committee Projects. However, this year the Executive Committee expanded its role as a place for faculty to bring any issues, concerns, or problems; additionally, it has become a place where faculty seek assistance in resolving disputes that fall within the jurisdiction of the Faculty Senate. In short, the committee has taken on a role as a mediator or problem solver for faculty issues. I believe this may be one of the most important functions that the Executive Committee could serve. This growing role has given voice to faculty in many situations where they’d previously felt without recourse. It has also allowed the university to resolve issues and problems earlier, which prevented them from becoming larger and more complex. The best measure of this change has been the growth of participation in the “Open Executive Committee” meetings. Over the last few years, the Executive Committee has held open meetings during the Wednesday following each full Faculty Senate meeting. In these meetings, all faculty members are invited to come directly to the Executive Committee and present any comments or concerns. In previous years, faculty participation typically amounted to no more than 10 minutes, and was dedicated to reviewing faculty issues raised during the full Senate meeting. However, throughout the 2017–2018 academic year, attendance has steadily increased, and now it is not unusual for our entire two hour meeting to be dedicated to discussing various faculty issues. These open discussions with faculty have been instrumental in creative problem solving at an early stage. As an example of the importance of faculty input from these Open Executive Committee meetings, the following key issues are now being investigated by the Faculty Senate Executive Committee:
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Faculty Senate Report
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