In this issue:
Shared Governance Town Halls, Tax Reform Bill Advocacy,
Town Hall on Mental Health and Wellbeing
Dear Faculty Colleagues,
In partnership with the Faculty Senate, the
Shared Governance Committee would like to gather input from our faculty colleagues regarding shared governance at Vanderbilt. The Shared Governance Committee, which was appointed by Provost Susan Wente, consists of eleven faculty members from the 10 colleges and schools at Vanderbilt. The Committee is diligently
working to study shared governance processes and best practices within the Vanderbilt community. The Shared Governance Committee has included its scope statement at the end of this article.
To gather input from the faculty, we have the following dates, times, and locations set aside to hear your feedback. We invite you to attend to share your thoughts about shared governance at Vanderbilt with representatives from the committee and the Senate.
November 28, Tuesday, 12:00pm, [Basic Sciences] - 3131 MRBIII
November 29, Wednesday, 1:00 pm, [Owen] - Room 216
November 29, Wednesday, 12:00pm, [Law] - Covington
December 1, Friday, 11:30 am, [Nursing] - Nursing Annex 161
December 5, Tuesday, 4pm, [Engineering] - Featheringill 132
December 6, Wednesday, 12:00 pm [Blair] - Choral Hall
December 6, Wednesday, 3:00 pm [Peabody] - Mayborn 204
December 8, Friday, 12:00pm, [Divinity] - Reading Room
December 13, Wednesday, 4pm, [A&S] - Wilson 112
December 14, Thursday, 12:00pm, [Clinical Sciences] - 512 Light Hall
We are eager to gather your input on where shared governance is working well at Vanderbilt and your specific suggestions to improve shared governance. There are several ways to provide input. First, please attend one or more of the above conversations. If you are unable to attend, or in addition to attending, we have an anonymous six-question survey you can complete by clicking
here
. You can also e-mail us at
[email protected].
Shared Governance Scope Statement:
Shared governance describes the extent to which faculty are involved in and consulted regarding University decision making. Shared governance has horizontal and vertical components. The horizontal component includes interactions between the Schools and Colleges; the vertical component includes interactions between the University and the Schools and College
s and within the Schools and Colleges. Faculty voice can be solicited through formal (e.g., institutionalized) and/or informal (e.g., ad hoc) mechanisms. Our committee's broad scope is to understand, analyze, and recommend potential changes to shared governance at Vanderbilt. The overarching goal of the Committee is to aid Vanderbilt in achieving its mission and goals as articulated in the 2013 Academic Strategic Plan. To those ends, we will engage administrators, full-time faculty of all ranks, and others to gather their understandings of current shared governance and ways in which shared governance can be enhanced. Our specific aims are multi-faceted:
- To investigate, understand, describe, and compare existing College, School, and University governance practices, processes, and structures.
- To identify successful policies and governance structures and recommend implementation or expansion where beneficial.
- To discern areas for which faculty input is particularly necessary and valuable.
To fulfill its mission, the Shared Governance Committee will involve faculty and senior leaders through individual and group meetings, town halls, surveys, MyVU updates, and other means designed for:
- Partnering with the Faculty Senate to ensure a robust and continually evolving set of approaches to faculty governance.
- Understanding faculty attitudes toward involvement in decision making, such as through the COACHE faculty satisfaction survey.
- Empowering and engaging faculty as an informed voice and as one of the primary stakeholders in the success of Vanderbilt University.
- Encouraging methods to embrace shared governance as a key component of leadership development and succession planning.
- Fostering Vanderbilt University's commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion in the recommended policies and governance structures developed.
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Vanderbilt Faculty has asked for information regarding the proposed tax plan which has made its way through the House of Representatives and is due before the Senate the week of November 27. The
Tax Cuts and Jobs Act contains multiple points of interest for students and faculty alike, including but not limited to taxation of endowments, graduate student tuition waivers and tuition benefits for dependents of faculty.
The Vanderbilt Office of Federal Relations has been engaged in this issue for quite some time, and the Assistant Vice Chancellor for Federal Relations, Christina West, has been in contact with the Senate Executive committee at your request. Her office has multiple sources of information for faculty including their
website, an electronic newsletter (
DCbrief), and an outside link to the American Council on Education
tax reform page. The American Council on Education page has resources tailored to assist educators in the area of advocacy.
Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos has been advocating for some time, including
letters to lawmakers and a
statement released November 9. Faculty are encouraged to get involved by contacting your Senator and Representative (
List here) by phone or email. As a reminder, any VU faculty who is using Vanderbilt University resources (email address, phone) must report that activity to the VU Office of Federal Relations. This is to meet a federal reporting requirement rather than a deterrent. VU faculty may always contact/petition their representatives as individual citizens using non-VU resources.
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The committee chairs, Donald Brady and Velma Murry, request faculty input and dialogue regarding the committee findings and recommendations prior to submission to the Chancellor
'
s office. Please come to have your input heard by the committee for this important initiative.
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Faculty Senate Meetings 2017 - 2018
Flynn Auditorium - Law School 040
The meeting time is 4:10 pm - 5:30 pm.
December 14, 2017
Flynn Auditorium (Law School 040)
January 11, 2018 Flynn Auditorium (Law School 040) February 8, 2018 Flynn Auditorium (Law School 040) March 1, 2018 **Elected Senators Only** Flynn Auditorium (Law School 040) April 12, 2018 Flynn Auditorium (Law School 040)
May 7, 2018 Reception to follow Flynn Auditorium (Law School 040)
Guest Speakers
- December 14 - Mark Wallace, Dean of the Graduate School
- January 11 - David Williams, Vice Chancellor for University Affairs and Athletics
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Please send your
thoughts, concerns or new business for the Executive Committee in writing to the EC via e
mail
or anonymously via the
Faculty Senate Portal Feedback Form
. Your comments are appreciated.
Wishing you a safe and Happy Thanksgiving
!
From Your 2017-2018
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