Faculty Senate Updates
Faculty governance is the way that we carry out our primary responsibility for curriculum, methods of instruction, research and faculty status, as well as for the aspects of our students' experiences that relate to their education.
State of Senate Archive
September 21, 2018
Presented by: Past President for 2017-2018 Dora E. Saavedra, Ph. D.
It has been an honor and a privilege to serve both as the Founding President of the UTRGV Faculty Senate from November 6, 2015- April 29, 2016, and then as a second term President for the 2017-2018 AY. I want to thank the Faculty Senate Executive Committee of 2017-2018: Volker Quetschke (COS) Doug Timmer (CECS), Michelle Alvarado (University College), Andrew Anabila (COBE), Arden Dingle (SOM), Jerry Lyles (CFA), Jameela Banu (Health Affairs), and last but not least, our representative from the University Library, Raquel Estrada. Thank you all.
I also want to publicly acknowledge Dr. Ala Qubbaj, from the Faculty Affairs and Diversity Office, whose office graciously provides our half time liaison, Vanessa Ceballos; who also helped make travel funds available to reimburse Senators for travel to meetings; an finally, who has generously provided hospitality for us several times. Thank you, Ala and thank you Vanessa for your incredible work ethic and support!
During that brief 6 month period of 2015-2016, the Senate established the foundation for Shared Governance at UTRGV. During 2016-2017, besides working on over 20 HOP polices under Bobbette Morgan, the White Paper was produced and approved in July 2016. This groundbreaking document respectfully and accurately identified many of the issues that we continued to work on in 2017-2018. The interim provost that year, included Faculty Senate representation in the ModernThink climate survey planning. As we learn more about the data collected by the ModernThink survey, I am particularly struck by the fact that the qualitative data gathered and presented in the White Paper have been supported by the quantitative data of the climate survey. The next step in the Climate Survey process is to present the data to the faculty and staff and to get to work on possible solutions.
I believe much of the progress made last year was made possible by the courageous (yet courteous and respectful) actions/votes of the Senators who voted to endorse the White Paper, who, in solidarity have advocated for merit raises, and who continue to contribute to the conversation of resolving the problems with senior leadership in the areas of transparency, communication, and equity.
I am proud of that the 2017-2018 Senate itself modelled shared governance through robust debate and discussion of issues facing our students, staff, departments, colleges and University. I believe the most significant accomplishment of 2017-2018, was the distribution of the Administrator Evaluation. There already has been a significant impact of that action, although, in my estimation, more remains to be done. For the new Senators, the results were posted on the 2017-2018 Blackboard site for the Senators to distribute as they saw fit, and I believe that the results will be (or have been) reposted on the 2018-2019 Blackboard site for this year’s Senators.
What does the future hold for the Faculty Senate? Many challenges still face UTRGV. The Faculty Senate is committed to improving the lives of all who work and study at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.
- We need to continue to forge partnerships with the Staff Senate, the Women’s Faculty Network, and the Student Government Association.
- We need to continue speaking truth to power.
- We need to do the right thing, in the right way, at the right time for the right reason.
- If we follow the principles of shared governance and those values that we espoused and endorsed in the 2016 White Paper, we can truly be the servant leaders, the voice of the faculty/staff/students, the positive change agents that we are called to be. When you think of Faculty Senate, think Faculty Service for all!
Thanks again for the Honor and the Privilege to have served with you on this continuing and noble venture. Together with others, the 2018-2019 Faculty Senate can and will accomplish great things!
September 22, 2017
Presented by: Past President for 2016-2017 Bobbette M. Morgan
President Saavedra, Fellow Senators, and Guests:
It was an honor and a privilege to serve as the UTRGV Faculty Senate President from April 29, 2016- May 5, 2017. I especially want to thank the Faculty Senate Executive Committee for their support and commitment to the Senate:
President –Elect and Past President and current President: Dora SaavedraParliamentarian: Volker Quetschke
Secretary: Michelle Alvarado, who has done an outstanding job of keeping up with the minutes. And thank you to our College Representatives:
James Boudreau, VCOBE (He is now at Kennasaw University)
Wilma Mealer, COHA
Arden Dingle, SOM
Jerry Lyles, CFA
Raquel Estrada, University Library
Wendy Lawrence-Fowler, CECS
I thank you all for your professional commitment and personal investment of time to the Faculty Senate.
I also want to acknowledge Dr. Ala Qubbaj, Vice Provost of Faculty Affairs and Diversity whose office provides us with an half time secretary, Vanessa Ceballos, who also takes care of all of the paperwork for travel reimbursements, travel to meetings, and for lunches for the Faculty Senate several times during the year. Thank you, Vanessa and thank you Ala, for your on-going commitment and support of the Senate and all faculty. We appreciate all you do.
We are a group of 75 faculty elected by our 1365 peers, recognized by the administration as the official voice of the faculty. Our responsibility is taken lightly. We need to be actively involved in decisions affecting all faculty. According to the American Association of University Professors the primary responsibility of the faculty is curriculum, subject matter, methods of instruction, research, faculty status, and those aspects of student life which relate to the educational process. This is what we have focused on over the last year.
The White Paper, developed under Dr. Saavedra in the first six months of our existence as a university and a senate, was a guide as we moved into the first full year as the UTRGV Faculty Senate.
Mark Kaswan and Linda Matthews served as our representatives on the Strategic Planning Committee. The Plan is now complete, and our work has now been given direction. Thank you to Mark and Linda for representing us so well.
In reviewing last year’s activities you will see that we took on a broad range of issues:
July 2016-White Paper completed and shared with President Guy Bailey and Provost Havidan Rodriguez
September 2016-Proposal for an Ombudsman presented to Senate. Motion made and passed in support of an Ombudsman position being established at UTRGV. The not so good news was that our graduate student enrollment was down by 16% fall semester.
October 2016-Guest speakers were invited to discuss UTRGV MOU with NextDecade Liquid Natural Gas and the Sierra Club. Faculty and students spoke on both sides of the issue as well as presenters form the organizations involved. This presented a lively discussion and an opportunity for us all to learn, when all was done a resolution to rescind the MOU failed. The good thing is that the administration became very aware of our concerns.
November 2016-The President and Provost shared with us that salary compression and inversion was being studied. The administration is working through the budget to identify funding and establish caps.
The Blue Ribbon Committee was approved and established last November, and members were: myself as Chair, Dora Saavedra, Marie Mora, Ala Quabbaj, Dean McHatton, Dean Block, Dean Diaz, and Dean Grewal. Thank you to all of you who served. This is an excellent model to keep in mind as we move forward.
Dora and Marie did a tremendous amount of work on all of the policies preparing them for the committee’s review. Thank you for all of the hours and effort invested in this so all faculty can benefit from clearer policies.
December 2016-Proposal for a Sanctuary University was brought forward. This occurred on the same day that the Governor of the State of Texas, Greg Abbott declared that Sanctuary Cities would lose funding. Students, faculty and administrators voiced concerns. We passed a resolution declaring ourselves to be a welcoming and an all- inclusive campus.
February 3, 2017-UTRGV was placed on probation by our accrediting agency SACSCOC. This actually occurred a few days after the December Senate meeting. The administration is working to determine what needs to be done and take care of these issues before next fall. The Faculty Senate Executive Committee was informed by the President the day after the SACS action was announced. This came as a surprise to all of us.
The Senate viewed part of the documentary film on “Starving the Beast”. This shows how nationally higher education is under attack by political factions and the way this is playing out by reduced funding across the board for institutions of higher education. It is not just us. We need to speak to all stakeholders about this trend.
February 17, 2017- Updates were presented by Provost Rodriguez and by Deputy Provost Cynthia Brown on progress on the White Paper, equity salary adjustments, compression and inversion of salary study, SACSCOCS, graduate enrollment and the budget for next two academic years. Actions by the legislature were not supportive of institutions of higher education. We will not know until the session ends how that will effect UTRGV.
March 31, 2017- Rick Anderson, Vice President for Finance and Administration, reported that four new buses will be purchased for next year. Deputy Provost Cynthia Brown reported on SACSCOC. IT is “scrubbing” the websites to make sure that all sites have current and consistent information. We have been asked not to change anything.
Ala Qubbaj, Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs and Diversity announced that we will have 99 faculty positions filled by the end of April.
May 5, 2017- President Bailey spoke to us about the budget and pointed out that higher education was not doing well with the legislature and we should expect a cut of about 4 %. We now know the cut was actually 12% when all was said and done. Our increased enrollment, has helped off-set some of the problems created by the financial cut. The legislature also gave back funds for our School of Medicine that had been gutted during the legislative session.
In May Provost Rodriguez shared a copy of the Huron Report with faculty. Adjustments to salaries should appear in our October pay checks. Approximately $3 million has been identified for this. The Faculty Senate Presidency passed to Dr. Dora Saavedra and Elections were conducted to fill the open officer positions.
Over the 2016-2017 academic year we reviewed, revised, and approved approximately 24 policies that will be added to the Handbook of Operating Procedures. That represents a tremendous investment of time and effort by all of us.
I am proud of our work during the 2016-2017 academic year. We have all tried our best to do what is right and what is best for the faculty we represent. We have had excellent and informed discussions on many issues. We have established very positive working relationships with our deans through the Blue Ribbon Committee, and kept lines of communication open with our administration.
It is our job, each of us, to represent the UTRGV Faculty Senate. This is a big job. We are now a big institution with over 1365 faculty. We have been selected to represent the faculty in our departments---not our own views, but all the members of our departments.
As President I often wondered if we identified the most pressing issues. I also am concerned about how we are viewed and how we view ourselves. Some faculty think things are bad, some feel things are going well, and who is right? I think it is like the parable about the three blind men describing an elephant. One has ahold of the tail and says an elephant is like a rope, one is touching a leg and says no, the elephant is like a strong tree, and one is touching the side of the elephant and says no, it is vast and higher than he can reach. They all are right, but none really understand what a whole elephant is like.
As a fairly new Faculty Senate we have experienced many growing pains, we are not what we used to be, we don’t do things like we used to, and we all need to learn to work together. I know Dr. Dora Saavedra, as our Faculty Senate President, will lead us through this third year as a Faculty Senate with strength and commitment. She will help us all get this “elephant” into sharp focus, and together we will support her in those efforts.
I appreciate this opportunity to address the Senate and say thank you for the opportunity to serve. Now I’ll turn it over to Dora.
Dr. Bobbette M. Morgan
UTRGV Faculty Senate President, 2016-2017
September 9, 2016
Presented by: Past President for 2015-2016 Dora E. Saavedra
President Morgan, Fellow Senators, and Guests:
It has been an honor and a privilege to serve as the Founding President of the UTRGV Faculty Senate from November 6, 2015- April 29, 2016. I want to thank the Faculty Senate Executive Committee of 2015: Bobbette Morgan, President-Elect, Volker Quetschke, Parliamentarian, Wendy Lawrence-Fowler---our secretary who worked tirelessly to provide us minutes, and the College Representatives—James Boudreau, COBE; Michelle Alvarado, University College, Wilma Mealer, COHA, Arden Dingle, School of Medicine, Britt Haraway, COFA, and last but not least, our representative from the University Library, Kelly Leu. Thank you all.I also want to publicly acknowledge Dr. Ala Qubbaj, Vice Provost of Faculty Affairs and Diversity whose office graciously provides our half time liaison, Vanessa Ceballos; who also helped make travel funds available to reimburse Senators for travel to meetings; and finally, who has generously provided hospitality lunches for us several times, including today. Thank you, Ala!
During that brief 6 month period we were in session, the Senate established the foundation for Shared Governance at UTRGV. 73 Senators were elected to serve as departmental representatives from the Brownsville, Harlingen and Edinburg campuses. Two positions remained unfilled, but those departments had at least one representative.
The Faculty Senators identified issues, compiled a White Paper and initiated conversations with President Guy Bailey, Provost/EVPAA Havidán Rodríguez and other administrative officials throughout the University. We recommended faculty representatives for committees and councils to serve on an interim basis until the committees are decided upon. Included in that was our recommendation to have Mark Kaswan and Linda Matthews, as our strong faculty representatives on the Strategic Planning Committee. Thank you Linda for your report today and your service!
One of the most important accomplishments of last year, the Senate itself modelled shared governance through robust debate and discussion of issues facing our students, staff, departments, colleges and University.
The Senate White Paper, presented to President Bailey emphasized the need for partnering with all stakeholders (students, staff and faculty) in order to improve the 2nd year experience of the entire University community.
Your voices were heard. Your voices will continue to be heard. You have made history. The Faculty Senate, and each and every one of you Senators—from AY 2015 and now from AY 2016, have established a precedent. We will speak truth to power; we will partner with others to improve UTRGV through the difficult times, and we will “inspire the academic world” with our ability to use conflict as an opportunity to clarify, define, dialogue and resolve our differences in a professional and respectful way.
Under the leadership of Bobbette Morgan, a recognized teacher, scholar and leader with 4 years of experience as President of the UTB/TSC Faculty Senate, the 2016-2017 Faculty Senate will accomplish much. Naysayers said a Senate with 70+ representatives would be impossible to manage. You all have shown everyone that the “impossible” may take a little bit more time, but the end result will be one that improves the lives of all at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley!
Congratulations Faculty Senate of 2015-2016!
Go forward and accomplish great things,
Senators for 2016-2017!