SENATE From the Senate Office |
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November 24, 2015, Volume 62, No. 15 |
The following is published in accordance with the Faculty Senate Rules. Among other purposes, the publication of SEC actions is intended to stimulate discussion among the constituencies and their representatives. Please communicate your comments to Patrick Walsh, executive assistant to the Senate Office, either by telephone at (215) 898-6943 or by email at senate@pobox.upenn.edu
Faculty Senate Executive Committee Actions
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
Chair’s Report. Faculty Senate Chair Reed Pyeritz reported that the Co-Chairs of the Senate Committee on the Economic Status of Faculty will present its findings at its December meeting. Dr. Pyeritz also informed SEC that the 2016 Faculty Senate symposium will be held on the afternoon of April 6, 2016. It will be open to the whole University community, and special guests and location will be announced at a later date. Though a number of thoughtful and engaging topics were submitted by SEC members and considered, the chosen topic will examine the role that faculty will play in the evolution of higher education over the next several years.
Past Chair’s Report. Faculty Senate Past Chair Claire Finkelstein reported that the Academic Planning and Budget Committee held its third meeting and the Capital Council has its next meeting on November 19. She gave an update on the Campaign for Community, informing SEC members that it has distributed more than $6,000 in grant funding to-date. The spring grant cycle will open on December 1 and continue through March 15, 2016. Campaign for Community events, past and present, can be found at the event calendar on its website, https://provost.upenn.edu/initiatives/campaign/calendar Dr. Finkelstein also gave an update on the Senate Tri-Chairs’ recent conversations with University officials on the topic of faculty members as “responsible” reporters of incidents of sexual violence under Federal law; she noted that Wendy White, Senior Vice President and General Counsel, will visit SEC at its December meeting to discuss this topic.
Update from the Office of the President. President Amy Gutmann provided SEC with an update on the Penn Compact 2020, the University’s current strategic plan. Its goals are inclusion (including student financial aid, faculty diversity and excellence, and innovative open learning), innovation (including endowed university-wide professorships, centers of multidisciplinary excellence, and the Pennovation Center at Pennovation Works), and impact (including the “Penn Connects 2.0” campus development plan, public policy initiatives, and the Penn Wharton China Center and Perry World House). She noted that Penn’s “all grant” financial aid packages have reduced the average debt of graduating students by more than 2% over the past year and that six-year graduation rates for African-American, Latino, and first generation students have all increased to 96%. Graduate student support has dramatically increased since 2004, and faculty diversity is incrementally improving. Penn’s most recent 10-year annual fundraising average has increased to $490.1 million from the previous decade average of $301.8 million, and fundraising goals of $1 billion for student financial aid and $900 million for new professorships are on track to be reached by 2019. President Gutmann noted concern about the steady decrease in federal research funding but that she is making an effort to engender Congressional support for increasing it. She thanked SEC members for their support of the Penn Compact 2020.
2016 Senate Nominating Committee. SEC members voted for the members of the 2016 Senate Nominating Committee.
Nomination of faculty members to University ad hoc committees. SEC members were informed that a student group has developed a proposal to request the University to divest from fossil fuels. The University Council Steering Committee at its most recent meeting referred that proposal to an Ad Hoc Advisory Committee on Divestment for further study in accordance with the Guidelines and Procedures for Consideration by the Trustees of Proposals for Divestment from the University Endowment or Other Holdings Based Upon Social Responsibility Concerns of the Penn Community. Under these Guidelines, the Senate must aid in the creation of the Ad Hoc Committee by nominating a slate of Standing Faculty members as candidates to the Committee. SEC members were asked to submit nominations of faculty members to the Faculty Senate Office by December 4, 2015.
Related: Faculty Senate Executive Committee Agenda
Related: SEC Nominating Committee |