Recap of University Senate's Sept. 14 meeting

Here is a recap of the University Senate's meeting held Sept. 14:

Remarks from the Senate chair

Kirk Alter, Senate chair, welcomed members to the year’s first meeting. Noting the importance of shared governance, he said the Senate is facing four main issues this year. They include proposed changes to the promotion and tenure policy, the campus-wide class size policy, transfer and control of academic space, and students' cognitive development and success as measured by standardized tests. The reorganization of the leadership of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, and the loss of Christine Taylor as vice provost, surprised many people, Alter said. He said the Senate will work with Deba Dutta, provost and executive president for academic affairs and diversity, to hire 100 underrepresented faculty over the next three years.

Promotion and tenure document

The Senate voted to approve modifications to the Promotion and Tenure Criteria Document. Alter said the changes were the result of a collaboration between the Faculty Affairs Committee and the Provost's Office, and reflect the importance of mentorship while improving how it is measured. Alter said the Senate will continue to revisit the issue of mentoring to make sure its importance is realized.

The document will go to the Board of Trustees for consideration at its Oct. 8-9 meeting.

The document with the Senate's changes is available here.

President Daniels' remarks

President Mitch Daniels unveiled the latest Purdue census figures. The president reported that enrollment grew, by design, and that this year's freshman class is the largest in seven years. He said there are more in-state students enrolled now than in the past several years and that a record number of minority and underrepresented students are enrolled. The president said the four-year graduation rate is above 50 percent and that retention rates also are up. He also said Purdue set records in fundraising, raising an all-time record of $343 million in the fiscal year that ended June 30; in research funding with a record $401 million; and in commercialization with 178 new patents, 131 licensed technologies and 25 startups based on Purdue licenses. The president said Purdue is attracting intense interest and he thanked the faculty members for their help.

Reorganization of diversity leadership

The provost said that although the communication of the recent reorganization of diversity leadership could have been better, the change was necessary. The provost said that Purdue has lost ground or has been treading water in recruiting underrepresented faculty over the last six years, so he has assumed the leadership role. Dutta said he will announce a provost's working group on diversity in the next few days. He said that once the group is announced, he will work with the Senate on setting diversity goals. The provost said he wants the entire campus to participate in the process, and he wants the faculty to help. He defined diversity as a shared responsibility and said improvements cannot be realized without extensive faculty participation.

Student Senate presentation

Becca Wilmoth, vice president of Purdue Student Government and the president of the Student Senate, gave an overview of the Student Senate.