The Senators Have Spoken!

Dear Faculty Colleagues,

Welcome to the November issue of Engage. This month's newsletter includes an update from the Elected Senators Only Faculty Senate Meeting, The Faculty Wellness Corner and other important information.


The 37 Senators, at the November 3rd Senators Only Meeting, voiced the need for more discussion on Faculty Senate issues and for monthly Faculty Senate meetings to be more interactive.
  • As a result of hearing your voice, we are proposing the following changes/enhancements by adjusting monthly meetings to reflect the following:
    • Increased Discussion for Senators:
      • 3 of the remaining 6 monthly meetings will not have guest speakers. This will allow for more discussion among The Senate.
      • 3 of the remaining 6 monthly meetings will have two guest speakers. This will allow a 10 minute update from each speaker.
      • For the remaining 6 monthly meetings, we will invite two Senators to lead a discussion from their Faculty Senate Standing Committees. The discussions will be related to a major charge or topic of interest based on the current lists of ideas that were prioritized in the October needs assessment. (see below) This will take place during the New Business section of the agenda
  • As a result of hearing your voice, we are encouraging you to submit your requests for Q&A to the faculty portal by the 15th of each month.

Chancellor and Provost Remarks:
    • The EC will invite the Chancellor and/or the Provost to answer 1-3 questions from The Senate body.
    • Questions are selected from those submitted by the Senators.
    • Questions are submitted to the Faculty Senate via the Faculty Senate portal by the 15th of every month.
    • Senator questions will be sorted and selected by the Executive Committee (EC).
    • Selected questions will be submitted to the Chancellor and Provost at the EC-Chancellor/EC-Provost meeting or via email no less than 5-8 business days before each Faculty Senate monthly meeting.
  • As a result of hearing your voice, we suggest that for the remaining 6 monthly meetings, two Senators from an assigned standing committee will raise a topic for The Senate body to discuss as New Business.
  • Open Discussion on Meaningful Issues
    • The discussion may utilize several formats including but not limited to: 1) a debate of the pros and cons, 2) why this is valuable to The Senate, 3) comparison to sister schools.
    • The sole purpose is to promote discussion of the issue/topic at hand and to have open deliberation of The Senate.
    • We will allow up to 20 minutes for presentations and discussions during the Faculty Senate monthly meeting.
    • The proposed assignments and possible suggestions for topics include:
      • December: Academic Policies & Services (new program requirements and processes; What is the Faculty Senate's role in curriculum at VU?)
      • January: Faculty Life (faculty wellness and DEI issues for faculty; faculty club)
      • February: Faculty Manual & General Counsel (grievances for promotions)
      • March: Student Affairs (mental health, substance use, follow up on Greek Life)
      • April: Strategic Planning & Academic Freedom (student academic freedom of expression)
      • May: Senate Affairs (changing the constitution and rules of order) 
  • As a result of hearing your voice, we will have a second senator only meeting in March.
    • To encourage greater attendance, this meeting will be at 12:00 noon and only last 1 hour.
    • The purpose will be to assess our progress on changes and raise future topics for discussion.
    • Remember, there is no voting, minutes, or other guests at Elected Senators Only meetings.
    • We will provide refreshments if the budget allows. 
  • As a result of hearing your voice, we will seek opportunities for promoting attendance through programmatic changes to the Faculty Senate monthly meeting.
    • To promote participation and highlight the powerful meaning of the Senator role, we will recognize those Senators who are fully engaged in The Senate.
    • Senator recognition and awards will be announced and given out at the following venues:
      • Fall and Spring Faculty Assemblies
      • Annual Senator Appreciation Holiday Event (This is a new event.)
      • May Faculty Senate Meeting 
  • As a result of hearing your voice, we propose to thread DEI into each Faculty Senate standing committee (done this year) and discuss how to create a new Standing Committee on DEI to assure DEI accountability.
    • DEI Thread: Weaving DEI into all Faculty Senate standing committees ensures that we are aware of and keeping DEI in consideration for all standing committees.
    • Faculty Senate Standing Committee on DEI: The Faculty Senate standing committee on DEI would identify Faculty Senate specific issues/tasks as well as liaise with the established DEI officers in the university to encourage the flow of information to and from the faculty and the administration.
    • Some current DEI areas for consideration include:
      • Equal pay and promotions for women
      • Training and education on cultural differences and implicit biases
      • Serving as representatives in the search for the Vice-Provost for DEI
      • Working alongside leadership to promote bridges to a more diverse, equitable and inclusive culture at Vanderbilt
  • As a result of hearing your voice, we propose to implement our first Senator Appreciation Holiday Reception - preliminarily scheduled for Friday, December 16, 11:30 am - 1:00 pm in Sarratt. More details to come.
What's New for the Faculty Senate?
 
1. Special Faculty Senate and VSG Joint Meeting: We propose a joint student government and Faculty Senate meeting in April of each year to discuss common topics between students and faculty. Our purpose is to continue  support of our students as they lead their student body. This spring, our joint focus is on the students' revision to their academic freedom of expression statement. We look forward to continuing this Annual Special Faculty Senate  - VSG Joint Meeting. The meeting will be held in April of each academic year.

 2. TIPS: We discussed this with the Provost. All non-tenured faculty members can apply for TIPs if it is supported by the dean of their school/college.

a. "The lead organizer of a proposal must be a tenured or tenure track member of the faculty, or a non-tenure track faculty member if an exception is granted by academic deans of the schools involved. The lead organizer must also demonstrate a past commitment to advancing collaborative endeavors." TIPs Web Page 
 
3. Faculty Awards: We discussed this with the Chancellor and the Provost. All faculty awards are now open to both tenure and non-tenured track faculty. For a complete list and description of all awards, please click here: Faculty Development and Diversity. Nominations are now open for the following awards:
    • Alexander Heard Distinguished Service Professor Award
    • Harvie Branscomb Distinguished Professor Award
    • Joe B. Wyatt Distinguished University Professor Award
    • Joseph A. Johnson Distinguished Leadership Professor Award to Recognize Faculty Leadership in Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion
4. SKYVU: Vanderbilt is moving to the cloud! SKYVU is in their second round of testing and major changes may impact your faculty and staff. The go live date is set for July 1, 2017. They are recruiting champions to help share the changes and work within the program. If interested, please contact, Kara Sundar, SkyVU Change Management at: kara.sundar@vanderbilt.edu. Learn more about potential impacts to VU-employed vs. VUMC-employed faculty by viewing slides on the faculty portal.
 
5. Refreshments Anyone?: We will explore the option of providing/funding refreshments for the monthly meetings.
 
6. Dean's Rounds: The Chair and Vice-Chair of The Senate has met with 9 of the 10 deans. We are supportive of aligning the Faculty Senate with their needs as much as possible and discussing issues of concern related to the faculty in each school/college. Each dean has been open, gracious, and welcoming. We look forward to sharing with you our final summary from these discussions.

Training Reminders:
 
Remember to train for:  
 
a.  Kognito: Training is available to improve your understanding and recognition of psychological distress.

b. MAPS: Training is available to enhance your understanding of Mental Health Awareness and Prevention of Suicide.

Focus on Physical Wellness:
 
Did you take the challenge? If so, hopefully you are moving a little more during the day. Here's a quote we use with physicians that I think is applicable to everyone:

"The medical academy's primary ethical imperative may be to care for others, but this imperative is meaningless if it is divorced from the imperative to care for oneself. How can we hope to care for others, after all, if we ourselves are crippled by ill health, burnout or resentment?"

"...medical academics must turn to an ethics that not only encourages, but even demands care of self."

Cole, Goodrich & Gritz. " Faculty Health in Academic Medicine: Physicians, Scientists and the Pressures of Success. " Humana Press 2009; pg 7.

Take this statement and switch out the medical part to include your family, classroom, department or your school/college. Everyone needs to be as healthy and well as we can be in order to help the many we provide with knowledge, skills and guidance. Continue making every effort to prioritize your health and wellness.

If you did not take the challenge last month, start now. If you started and are improving in one area, choose another area to strengthen during the next month and keep moving forward!!


Wishing you a mentally and physically well academic year from the Faculty Senate Executive Committee,
                                               
The next Faculty Senate Meeting is
                     If you have any questions, please contact:                        

Debbie Hayes
Administrative Manager
615-343-3841