In its final meeting of the year, the Faculty Senate reviewed the major issues it tackled this year, including a recent report on shared governance and amendments to Saint Louis University’s grievance policy.
Prior to new business, the senate discussed the shared-governance report that details steps required to improve governance at the University. The report, approved unanimously by the senate on March 29, acknowledges that significant steps have been made to increase shared governance, but changes-such as decentralization of decision-making and improved communication between governing bodies-are still necessary.
“The plan outlined . is a clear blueprint for change,” stated Faculty Senate President Randy Sprague in his report to the senate.
The senate raised the question of how to address future responses to the document, including reactions from University administration and the Board of Trustees. Ian Redmount, associate professor of physics, suggested that a motion be stated to ensure that the report’s suggestions will be addressed next year.
The motion says: “The Faculty Senate maintains that shared governance at Saint Louis University remains an important, ongoing issue. We therefore direct the executive council to continue to monitor vigilantly the response to the Faculty Senate report on shared governance, pending a resumption of the Faculty Senate deliberation in fall 2002.”
Following the approval of this motion, Jeanne Donnelly, assistant professor of health information management, delivered Sprague’s president’s report. Sprague identified the senate’s accomplishments this year, including the completed revisions to the grievance policy and the ad hoc committee’s completion of its report on shared governance. Sprague noted that revisions to issues in the Faculty Manual are still in progress and that improvements continue towards commitment to faculty development.
Fred Wolinsky, professor in the School of Public Health, then addressed last week’s visit by the North Central Accreditation Team, summarizing University Provost Sandra Johnson’s report on the team’s visit.
Wolinsky reviewed issues that the Faculty Senate’s executive committee discussed with the NCA team, including the committee’s view of the University’s strengths and weaknesses. Wolinsky said that most of the issues raised involving the University’s weaknesses remained in the areas of shared governance, centralization, management style and space allocation.
The shared-governance report was also presented to the NCA team.
“[The NCA team] was supportive of the concerns the Faculty Senate had,” Wolinsky said.
John Slosar, associate professor in the School of Social Service, reviewed amendments made to the University’s grievance policy, which addresses issues including faculty contracts, termination policies and disputes between faculty and/or faculty and administration. The new policy took effect on March 1, after approval by both the Board of Trustees and the Faculty Senate. One major change was the restructuring of the ad hoc judicial committee. Previously, members of the committee were chosen at random; now, the chair of the committee will be chosen by the Faculty Senate president from a list of five tenured faculty members from the Law School. Remaining members will be selected from among the University’s tenured faculty.
Another change called for the placement of one Faculty Senate Professional Relations Committee. Prior to the change, two grievance committees existed-the Professional Relations and Grievance Committees, and a second grievance committee in the School of Medicine. Past conflicts between these two committees triggered the change to one grievance committee, Slosar said.
Deadline dates to move formal grievances through the Professional Relations Committee were also added, “to move it along in a timely process,” Slosar added.
Following the conclusion of the senate’s new business, Wolinsky was announced as the newly-elected Faculty Senate President for 2002-2003.
