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From the Senate Office: Faculty Senate Executive Committee Actions

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.

Report from the Senate Tri-Chairs. Faculty Senate Chair William Braham introduced Professor Tulia Falleti as 2022-2023 Chair-Elect of the Senate. He then offered a brief year-in-review of the work of SEC:

Issues Requiring a Vote. SEC voted to elect a slate of four faculty representatives for the 2022-2023 University Council Steering Committee. 

Senate Committee Reports. SEC heard and discussed reports given by chairs of certain Senate committees. Reports from all Senate standing committees will be published as a supplement to a future issue of Almanac.

Senate Committee on Faculty Development, Diversity, and Equity (SCFDDE). Professor Nelson Flores reported on SCFDDE’s findings and recommendations. Selected recommendations include:

  • The Faculty Senate should create an Ad Hoc Committee that closely examines the current University and school-level procedures related to balancing academic freedom and tenure protections with the need for faculty sanctions (including possible tenure removal) for faculty misbehaviors with a particular focus on bringing more transparency to this process and considering the needs of those who have been victimized by these misbehaviors. 
  • The Faculty Senate should consult with Human Resources to review the current policies related to parental and teaching leave for faculty who choose to grow their families via foster care with the goal of revising the Faculty Handbook as appropriate to address faculty need.
  • The Faculty Senate should review the associated faculty and academic support staff options available in the Faculty Handbook with an eye toward making the positions appealing enough to attract a diverse applicant pool and considering the possibility of promotion and professional growth for each of the different positions. 
  • Further, the Faculty Senate should seek data that can help determine trends in gender, race and ethnicity in division, department chair, deanship leadership at the University over the past five years.

Senate Select Committee on the Institutional Response to the Climate Emergency (CIRCE). Professor Braham reported on the ongoing work of CIRCE’s four subcommittees:

  • The Subcommittee on Operations received a report from Office of Sustainability on operational responses to the Resolution on the Individual and Institutional Responses of Faculty in the University of Pennsylvania to the Global Climate Emergency. 
  • The Subcommittee on Community & Policy has advocated for air travel offsets to be invested locally and created a Faculty Climate Pledge appeal film.
  • The Subcommittee on Education and Research created a white paper for President-Elect Liz Magill on the topic: “What shall we prioritize for the new administration?”  The white paper addressed the topics Assessing Climate Risks, Developing Mitigation and Adaptation Solutions, Constructing Policy Pathways, and Building New Educational Curricula and Communication Tools.
  • The Subcommittee on UPHS and CHOP continues to advocate for the development of its own carbon action plan and is in the process now of developing a dozen active working groups so as to distribute the workload. Any UPHS or CHOP employees are encouraged to contact the Senate office to be added to the CIRCE:UPHS/CHOP mailing list.

Senate Committee on the Economic Status of the Faculty (SCESF). Professor Iourii Manovskii reported on SCESF’s findings and recommendations. SCESF focused on identifying salary and compensation inequities based on race, gender, and other observable characteristics. It also focused on effects of the pandemic-related salary freeze, the ongoing rise in inflation, and effects of the Policy on Class Meeting Times established in fall 2021.

Prof. Manovskii suggested that one-time events, such as salary freezes and increases in inflation, can have significant long-term consequences on salaries and retirement savings account balances, absent specific corrective actions in subsequent years. He shared example calculations to illustrate the point. The lack of a merit-based raise in FY2021 seems justified in the circumstances of the pandemic, though if the effects are not reversed by supplying an appropriate increase in subsequent years, a one-time freeze can add up to a large and lasting reduction in faculty salary payments over time. Once the impact of the pandemic on University finances subsides, the University should return base salaries to the same point on their growth trajectory, absent the freeze. However, the University has indicated that no cost-of-living increases for continuing faculty will be made.  Some distributional effects of inflation were discussed and will be printed in detail in the forthcoming report.

Passing the Gavel. Professor Braham recognized Professor Jamieson for her three years of service as a Tri-Chair to the Faculty Senate by presenting her with a commemorative gift: an 1864 edition of Thomas Jefferson’s Manual of Parliamentary Practice. He then yielded the floor to Professor Gadsden. SEC members welcomed Professor Gadsden as chair of the Faculty Senate for the 2022-2023 year. 

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