Teal plans to employ design expertise to tackle challenges in the senate
For Randall Teal, every challenge he encounters is simply a design problem, and as the recently elected 2015-2016 University of Idaho Faculty Senate chairman, that’s how he intends to get objectives accomplished.
Teal is a second-year senator and served as vice chairman for the past year under Marty Ytreberg. Outside of Faculty Senate, he is the program head for the Architecture and Interior Design program.
When Teal joined Faculty Senate last year, he did so because his colleagues supported him in matters of faculty governance.
“He is a great choice to be chair of Senate,” said Ytreberg, this year’s Faculty Senate chairman. “I wanted him to be vice chair this year because of the fact that he cares about important issues for the university.”
As Faculty Senate chairman, Teal will work with UI administrators and represent the will of the Senate.
“The role of a senator in general is to represent your college,” Teal said. “What I kind of see the chair’s role of being is kind of a conduit between faculty and upper administration.”
Teal described a designer’s role as a mediator, which he sees as empowering. He said there are many parallels to design and his new role as chairman.
He said as chairman, it would be important to understand what is realistic to accomplish and find a middle ground between the desires of Faculty Senate and the administration.
“Usually, you can’t achieve the absolute … but hopefully there’s a place you can find that’s really, really good,” Teal said.
He said when designing, it is important to try things out, even if it means result is an outcome no one initially anticipated.
“There’s always these forces working on whatever you’re trying to design,” he said.
For Teal, managing multiple things at once is just part of the job. He said working with the bigger picture in mind is key.
“I’m always immediately seeing the opportunities,” Teal said. “Obstacles are part of the nature of the beast.”
Ytreberg said he has experienced Teal’s way of thinking firsthand.
“He sort of views problems differently than other people, but I think it’s very useful,” Ytreberg said.
After serving in a leadership position with Ytreberg last year, Teal said he feels prepared for his new responsibilities as chairman.
“This year, I kind of played a more advisory role to the chair,” he said. “The chair does a lot more in terms of dealing with everything that comes up and making decisions.”
Because Senate terms are only one year, Teal said his experience as vice chairman was critical in setting him up to succeed next year.
“You start to understand some of the mechanics and some of the things that come up, both randomly as well as just the usual meetings,” he said. “You start to kind of get the rhythm of what goes on in Senate leadership.”
Teal said he hopes to complete initiatives, such as the faculty evaluation process review that began this year, as well as aiding UI President Chuck Staben’s enrollment goal.
As far as overall Faculty Senate goals, Teal said it’s a work in progress.
“Any good project starts with a lot of listening,” he said.
Teal said he plans to spend the summer getting up to speed in his new position, including listening to the concerns of faculty members and gauging what senators have on their agendas.
Liz Brandt, Faculty Senate member from the College of Law, was elected as vice chairwoman for the 2015-2016 Senate.
“Liz is a very smart person who has timely things to say, has insightful contributions to the Senate and seems like someone who would be an excellent vice chair,” Teal said.
Katelyn Hilsenbeck can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @Katelyn_mh