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, March 18, 2020

Chair’s Report. Faculty Senate Chair Steven Kimbrough reported that the work of all the Senate Committees is continuing apace. In particular, the Senate’s two ad hoc committees – the Committee on the institutional Response to the Climate Emergency and the Committee on Scholarly Communication – are invited to provide verbal interim reports to SEC at its next meeting.

Past Chair’s Report. No report was offered.

Get Out the Vote. SEC member and Professor of Communication, Psychology, and Marketing Emily Falk, together with representatives of the Netter Center for Community Partnerships (Associate Director Cory Bowman and Emerson Fellow Benjamin Oh), presented a non-partisan proposal to advance voter registration, education, and voting across Penn students, staff, and faculty through faculty-student-staff partnerships. Helping students become better and more informed citizens is key to Penn’s educational mission, a key component of which is becoming an informed voter. However, voter turnout among Penn community members remains lower than ideal, based on available data. The proposed non-partisan effort would be managed in coordination with the student group “Penn Leads the Vote,” which has laid groundwork by encouraging peers to be engaged and educated voters. To date, the student effort has focused on student registration; institutional support could enhance students’ registration, educational, and voter turnout efforts. Peer institutions including Northwestern and Stanford have successfully launched efforts similar to this proposal. In the future, this partnership could help expand the work currently being done in partnership with the West Philadelphia community, particularly local schools.

SEC members unanimously endorsed a non-partisan proposal to request institutional action by Fall 2020 on the following matters:

• For implementation during Spring 2020: (1) launch a stand-alone Canvas module for all students that would include links to the Penn Leads the Vote website (pennvotes.org) and a COVID-19-specific voter guide; (2) request a University Notification from the President and Provost on primary registration and voting, beginning with one that would address voting challenges posed by the ongoing pandemic response.
• For implementation by Fall 2020: (1) continue the stand-alone Canvas module for all students that would include links to the Penn Leads the Vote website (pennvotes.org) and voter guide; (2) integrate voter registration (either locally or at the student’s permanent home address) with course registration; (3) integrate pennvotes.org materials into Study Abroad orientation to support students in voting while abroad; (4) offer students the option to receive voter engagement communications via email as part of student onboarding, and face-to-face voter registration as part of New Student Orientation; (5) train Resident Assistants and Graduate Assistants to participate in voter engagement efforts within the College House system; (6) integrate registration and voting into the College House system; (7) improve business processes that would provide voter registration materials to all new faculty and staff during onboarding; (8) improve the Penn Mail system to expedite voting-related mail; and (9) continue University Notification from the President and Provost on registration and voting.

Actions that could be taken at the school and departmental levels were discussed. Professor Falk also encouraged action at the individual faculty level, including: listing key voting dates and Penn Leads the Vote resources on all course syllabi and on Canvas; considering the use of some class time to discuss voter engagement efforts; and considering involvement with a cross-university voter engagement group that would meet semesterly to coordinate efforts.

All members of the University community are invited to contact Emily Falk (emily.falk@asc.upenn.edu), Benjamin Oh (benoh@sas.upenn.edu), or Cory Bowman (bowman@upenn.edu) to get involved in the voter engagement effort.

Proposed Statement on Impacts to Faculty Travel by the COVID-19 Outbreak. SEC members reviewed a proposed statement urging departmental tenure and promotion review committees to consider papers accepted at scholarly conferences the same credit in the tenure and promotion process that they would have received had the paper actually been delivered. SEC members supported the content of the statement but expressed by consensus that the statement could be broadened. The statement will be revised and circulated by email for consideration prior to the next SEC meeting.

Coping with Changes to Penn’s Operations Resulting from the COVID-19 Outbreak. SEC members discussed three issues arising from changes to Penn’s operations during Spring 2020: campus housing for students wishing to remain on campus; approaching grading policies and practices amid the shift to online-based instruction; and policies and expectations for recording lectures and discussions convened online