Dear Colleagues,
It is an unexpected honor and privilege to be elected Chair of the Faculty Senate for 2010-2011. I am keenly aware of the responsibilities the governing faculty's representatives have entrusted to me and I will do my utmost to promote and reinvigorate the ideal of shared governance at the University of Michigan-Dearborn initiated by my predecessor and personal friend, Professor Gerald Moran.
Shared governance-understood as faculty, student, and administrative participation in all levels of the institutional decision-making process--is a very old tradition at the University of Michigan. In dramatic contrast with recent national trends toward corporate models of governance in higher education, the intent of the University of Michigan system's founders was unequivocally democratic from the beginning. Ours is a publicly supported institution, whose ultimate governing body, the University of Michigan Board Regents, is elected at two year intervals by the people of this state.
Moreover, "Principles of Faculty...Governance at the University of Michigan," mandated by the Regents in 2008 and subsequently endorsed by Chancellor Little in 2009, reaffirms the essential role of faculty participation in university decision making. Beginning with the preamble that "Shared governance is a cherished tradition of American Universities, including the University of Michigan," it emphasizes that "Faculty participation in governance promotes and encourages diversity of ideas, a shared sense of responsibility, collaboration, collegiality, and institutional excellence." It concludes that "the Bylaws of the University of Michigan Board of Regents have created the [Faculty] Senate as the principle agency of institutional governance. The [Faculty] Senate is authorized to consider any subject pertaining to the interests of the University and to make recommendations to the Board of Regents."
The charge of the Faculty Senate, as the elected representatives of the faculty at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, is thus indeed large. During the coming year the Senate, as well as the many policy making committees it appoints, will actively address a wide range of issues, including: improving communication with the Regents and other faculty governing bodies within the U of M system and state; better representing faculty by soliciting their views through electronic surveys, periodic newsletters, and direct polling; addressing economic concerns of the faculty, including continued salary compression, growing compensation inequalities, and declining retirement health benefits; scrutinizing the promotion and tenure process, while examining variable faculty retention rates and the reasons for them; assessing resource allocation by the central administration and the programmatic imperatives they bespeak; seeking to reinstate lost institutional research funding opportunities; creating a more inclusive environment in our richly multicultural community; and better defining the role of the regional campuses within the U of M system by exploring the many ways in which mutual collaboration benefits all three universities, while also examining the ways in which we are each unique and how this is likely to influence the future evolution of our institution during the decades to come.
I strongly urge each of you to become better informed about these important questions and to take an active role in the process of shared governance, not only during the coming year, but throughout your tenure at this institution. Make your voice, as well as your own vision of UM-D's future, heard by all!
Sincerely,
Joe Lunn, Chair
UM-D Faculty Senate
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| News & Announcements |
Unit elections for Senators 2012-2015 underway!
*Ilir Miteza re-elected as Social Sciences Senator
*Martha Adler elected as Senate Assembly Representative
- congratulations! |
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