Conflicts arise amid department mergers

 
The faculty senate is an elected body of faculty representing the senate. It gives representation to every college within the university. Every college should have at least one senate member.​
“We have meetings on a monthly basis throughout the semester. We always have an invited guest and/or a set agenda of issues that we feel we need to address based on the input that we are getting from our constituents,” said faculty senate Vice President Thomas Miller​
SU Invited two members of the national organization American Association of University Professors (AAUP) to speak to the faculty about re-initiating an AAUP chapter on campus.​
The AAUP’s purpose is to advance academic freedom and shared governance, to define fundamental professional values and standards for higher education, and to ensure higher education’s contribution to the common good.​
“There is a recommendation from the administration that we go from 44 departments on campus to 15 departments, we’re not talking about closing departments at all, we’re talking about putting multiple programs together under one department head,” said Miller.​
The administration as of yet has not given real clarity as to what the details of a university re organization will look like.​
“It’s rather late in the day for them to still not have told us which colleges exactly are going to be the colleges that represent in to which the university is organized. There’s a big question as to which departments are going to integrate,” said Miller​
The administration plays one role on campus and the faculty a somewhat different role.  The faculty is by definition largely self-governing and it should be. The faculty are the ones who should be making decisions regarding reorganizing,” said Miller “If you want to combine departments then it’s the faculty with those departments who should really have a say as how the reorganization should take place.”​
There are some conflicts among the faculty regarding the merging of departments. ​
“When reorganizing the academic unit you want faculty who are trained specifically in those areas to be making those decisions. The administration is certainly welcomed to make suggestions or maybe even urge faculty to move in certain directions but the faculty should ultimately have the say-so in weather or not these things would work,” said Miller.​
Department merging of this magnitude on a collegiate level is very rare phenomenon.​
“We don’t know of any other university that has done this, we’ve looked and the only model we could find is some community colleges and so that’s of concern,” said Miller “We need to have a definitive word from the administration now as to exactly how many departments are going to be left at the end of the day and what the reconfiguration is going to look like. “​
“They have had plenty of time to make that decision. The faculty hasn’t been consulted on that decision and we should be. Not to protect faculty but to protect the students and this institution,” said ​Miller.​
Dismissal of faculty is another thorn in the side of SU’s faculty.​
“Even though we are in a period of financial exigency, there still need to be a transparent process that will ensure fair play to all faculty member who may be considered for dismissal,” said Miller “As far as I know there have been ten to a dozen individuals whose jobs have been terminated but no rationale for why or how the decision was made.”  ​
Miller went on to suggesting a committee be established in regards to the dismissal of faculty.​
“I think a committee should be given information along with all the data and supporting evidence to make a case then they decide, but I don’t think it is fair to faculty members simply to be told ‘we’re in financial exigency, we’re so sorry, you wont be with us next year’…” ​
He also questioned the criteria of how these decisions are being made.​
“Faculty are being dismissed without the being given a clear understanding of what the criteria are for that decision and a committee of peers to review the material and the recommendation if it is coming from the administration,” said Miller.​ ”We should have a committee of peers assembled, come up with a criteria requiring factual information and evidence for making that kind of decision.”​
I’m not saying that some faculty members should or shouldn’t get eliminated, what I’m saying is if the administration feels a need to dismiss anyone we should in all fairness know by what criteria they judge because they should all be judged by the same criteria.​
“We have a very good, very strong faculty that represents this university well,” said Miller.