A look at Faculty Senate

The Union Faculty Senate is the body that represents the interests and needs of faculty for any academic conversations. Its purpose is to provide Union with checks and balances of power as they listen to and advise the President’s Council. The group meets monthly. All full-time faculty are automatically members of the Senate and adjunct faculty can join after teaching at least 6 semester hours for a year and then beginning an additional 6 semester hours the next year.

The Union Faculty Senate chose three themes to address this school year:

Love and Belonging: as children of God, every human being is inherently worthy of love and belonging.

Subtle Acts of Exclusion: the little ways we mistreat each other matter; small hurts can accumulate if not addressed and repaired. Thankfully, the reverse is true. The little ways we treat each other as worthy of love and belonging also accumulate.

Universal Design for Learning: the little ways we treat each other as worthy of love and belonging also accumulate.

These themes were adapted from specific requests made by Union College students and Student Senate last school year. There were specific requests for Union employees to be trained on cultural diversity and sensitivity, microaggressions and Canvas.

One way of addressing these themes is the uBelong statement, which was approved by the Senate during their September meeting. The statement is the product of three years of conversation among faculty about the best way to express support for students. It is shared in relation to the uMatter form, available on uGroups. It reads:

“Because we are created in the image of God, we have immeasurable value. In harmony with our calling as followers of Jesus, Union College celebrates our many ways of being diverse and aims to offer every person an equitable learning and working environment as well as foster a sense of belonging among all on campus.”

Another focus for Faculty Senate is syllabi. Last year, the Student Senate felt that there was a lack of clarity and inconsistency in the content that faculty were providing in syllabi. After the Student Senate met with Dr. Tanya Cochran, the chair of Faculty Senate, brought the concerns to Faculty Senate, resulting in an addition to the official faculty handbook. This addition creates specific expectations for the content of syllabi. There is also a new section that requires specific information to be posted to Canvas, including the course syllabus, a tentative course schedule, grades and another project of the Faculty Senate: campus-wide resources and policies.

The new academic resources link contains a range of resources, all of which are indirectly or directly related to student’s success in the classroom. This includes Student Success resources, research, writing and speaking resources, and emotional, social and medical resources. The Faculty Senate approved the link and it is set to be launched next month.

One of the resources included in the link comes from a direct request of Student Senate: information about the actions a student should take when they have concerns related to a class. The new protocol clearly outlined a chain of command that students can follow in order to have their concerns met.

The Faculty Senate strives to respond to the concerns of both faculty and students. Dr. Tanya Cochran, the Chair of Faculty Senate, puts it simply. “We are listening.”

By Aubrey Benton