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From the Senate Office: SEC 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

Faculty Senate Executive Committee Actions

Chair’s Report. After introductions by all those present, Faculty Senate Chair Laura Perna welcomed the members of the Senate Executive Committee (SEC) and offered a brief review of the Senate and its structure. She indicated that the work of five of the Senate’s committees has already begun in earnest for the year and the committees will make reports from time to time as the year continues. She encouraged the 36 “constituency members” of SEC to maintain a line of communication between SEC and their Standing Faculty constituents, and she noted that a full list of constituencies is available on the Senate’s website, http://www.upenn.edu/faculty_senate/sec_members.html  Dr. Perna indicated that Penn Alumni is seeking nominations for the Faculty Award of Merit.

Past-Chair’s Report. In Faculty Senate Past Chair Reed Pyeritz’s absence, Dr. Perna reported that the Campaign for Community (C4C) is entering its second year, with Dr. Pyeritz, Vice Provost for Education Beth Winkelstein and Vice Provost for University Life Val Cade serving as its Tri-Chairs. C4C’s goals are to promote understanding of and respect for multiple points of view on important topics related to the University community, encourage dialogue and discussion among members of the community about issues with the potential for difference and disagreement and create opportunities for all members of the University’s community to participate in conversations about important topics. In the previous year, C4C provided funding to 22 different programs that aimed to strengthen the Penn community by finding ways to discuss and understand key issues that may appear to be difficult or intractable. She added that applications are being sought from faculty, students and staff this year on a rolling basis. Submissions should fit the mission of C4C and should, ideally, be novel programming that would otherwise not occur without C4C support. Applications for existing programming are also accepted. Dr. Perna directed applicants to visit the C4C website, https://provost.upenn.edu/initiatives/campaign/grants

Update on Penn’s Work with the West Philadelphia Community. Jeffrey Cooper, Vice President of Government & Community Relations, and Glenn Bryan, Assistant Vice President of Community Relations, reported on the work of the Office of Government and Community Affairs (OGCA). They described OGCA’s work with city and federal governments and its efforts to foster collaboration among community networks. On the first Thursday of each month, OGCA holds a Community Meeting (open to the public) at the Free Library branch on 40th and Walnut streets in order to grow and sustain cooperative working relationships with community leaders. OGCA offers guided community tours to interested parties in order to provide context for Penn’s history of engagement with surrounding neighborhoods. OGCA advocates for construction, purchasing and human resources contracts with local, minority and women-owned business and residents to foster economic inclusion; in FY2015, these categories accounted for 25% of workforce hours in Penn construction projects. Thirteen percent of total purchasing in FY2015 was expended with minority and women-owned businesses, and 125 unemployed residents have been trained by Penn for employment since 2010, with 72% placed in full-time jobs through the West Philadelphia Skills Initiative. 

Update on Information Security at Penn. Joshua Beeman, Penn Information Security Officer, reported on the inline blocking “University firewall” that will be implemented in October 2016. This “next generation” firewall will block unwanted network traffic while permitting authorized communication based on pre-defined rules and heuristics. Though many Schools and Centers already deploy firewalls locally, the University firewall will serve as a central line of defense, offering a rapid, proactive base of protection to all PennNet users. The firewall will only block traffic on the network that has no legitimate use (as defined by an inclusive governance team comprised of Penn stakeholders from all categories, industry standard rules and Penn analysts evaluating real-time threats). A “Science DMZ” bypass network will be retained to avoid disruption of legitimate or desired traffic. Penn ISC will not interrupt or see into encrypted connections, and the firewall will never be deployed in a manner inconsistent with Penn’s policies on privacy or open expression. Mr. Beeman requested faculty members contact their local support providers for more information and to send any and all feedback and support to ISC. He encouraged faculty to visit the Firewall FAQ, https://www.isc.upenn.edu/university-firewall-faq-general for more information, use Penn’s free-to-use password manager known as LastPass and adopt Two Factor identification for PennKeys.

Discussion and Vote of Draft committee Charges. The specific charges of the Faculty Senate committees were reviewed and approved by majority vote via show of hands. Potential topics for future SEC meetings were also discussed.

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