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, February 13, 2019

Chair’s Report. Faculty Senate Chair Jennifer Pinto-Martin reported on a number of matters. The Office of the Vice Provost for Education welcomes comments through March 11, 2019 from faculty on the 2021-2022 academic calendar. The Penn Forum for Women Faculty will host Penn President Emerita Judith Rodin for its annual Phoebe Leboy Lecture on April 10 at 3 p.m. at the School of Dental Medicine. The Vice Provost for Research has announced two new funding opportunities, “Discovering the Future Grant” and “Accelerating from Lab to Market Grant;” application materials for both can be found at https://upennresearch.smapply.io/ The “Your Big Idea” wellness contest has received more than 250 submissions since its February 4 launch; submissions from anyone with a Penn email address can be made through March 1 at https://bigidea.pennmedicine.org/wellness This year’s Teach-In session will be “What We Know about Race—For Sure” and will be held at the Free Library of Philadelphia’s Parkway Central Library branch on April 10, 6-8 p.m. Faculty and students are encouraged to attend.

Past Chair’s Report. Faculty Senate Past Chair Santosh Venkatesh reported on the Human Capital Management project and the corresponding launch of Workday@Penn on July 1, 2019.

Update from the Office of the Provost. Provost Wendell Pritchett reminded faculty members to express appreciation for their departmental business managers, who are working diligently to implement Workday@Penn in July. Any negative impacts on faculty through the transition period are likely to be minimal, and the new system is expected to have significant long-term benefits for the University and its workforce.

Provost Pritchett discussed faculty leadership development. Following an invited visit to a conference sponsored by the Mellon Foundation on development of humanities faculty into leadership roles, Penn received a $100,000, three-year grant from the Foundation to enhance its work in this area. The goals of the grant are to develop leaders from diverse backgrounds and develop leadership pipelines. The Provost noted that the Mellon Foundation recognizes the value of leadership development for higher education broadly across college campuses nationwide. Every faculty member is a leader in some capacity, and the development of faculty who understand the challenges and importance of leadership roles on campus is a service to the institution whether or not the faculty member achieves a formal leadership role. The Mellon Foundation perceives there is a shortfall of leaders in the humanities, possibly because humanities faculty tend to have fewer leadership opportunities given that their scholarship is generally less collaborative than that of faculty in the sciences.

Faculty leadership development opportunities are continuing to increase at Penn. The Provost’s Leadership Academy is aimed at helping emerging faculty leaders understand leadership roles and responsibilities by exposing them to current campus leaders through workshops and networking events. Its most recent session focused on time management and faculty diversity issues. The Provost described the Penn Faculty Pathways Program, which is an ongoing development opportunity for assistant professors.

The initial program was NIH-funded and targeted biomedical scientists, but Penn has seen success in the program and has expanded it to assistant professors whose work is in STEM disciplines. The support from the Mellon Foundation will help expand the Pathways program to the humanities faculty.

2019 Senate Committee on Committees. The roster for the 2019 Senate Committee on Committees was discussed and additional new members were identified.

Moderated Discussion. SEC members continued their discussion on the composition and teaching contributions of Standing Faculty, Academic Support Staff and Associated Faculty. The discussion then turned to the possibility of organizing a sustainable, recurring, annual Teach-In event modeled after the two prior Faculty Senate Teach-Ins. It was proposed that this could take the form of a multisession, one-day event focusing on a single overarching topic (e.g., environment and sustainability) that changes year-to-year. SEC members suggested that the Teach-Ins could be held on campus but should aim to encourage involvement by local community members in selecting the topic and participating in the event. Sessions should be thoughtfully delivered so as to be directly relevant to participants’ lives. Enough lead time should be provided to allow faculty to incorporate the Teach-In and its theme into their courses.