UI held a faculty senate meeting Tuesday over Zoom to discuss issues and topics on campus.
The theme of the meeting was quality of life on campus. UI faculty also discussed the University of Phoenix purchase and safety concerns in the workplace.
The main topic of the meeting was the potential shutdown of the government that was supposed to happen on Oct 1. but got delayed by 45 days (about 1 and a half months). The discussion was open to other matters such as UI’s affiliation with the University of Phoenix and how the faculty feels about the purchase.
Most of the meeting was dedicated to creating a survey about the degree of approval of the UOPX affiliation. Many thoughts and opinions were shared about what the survey should entail.
“The idea would be to assess what concerns people have so that they can be addressed. I think it might be useful also to have a sense of if people understand what that affiliation agreement is because I do not think people do.” Kristen Haltinner, the Vice Chairman of the Faculty Senate, said.
Some faculty members feel that they were left out of the decision completely.
“There’s a broad theme here where faculty and staff feel like we are being left out of decisions” Haltinner stated.
Another big topic discussed was the overall safety of staff and students on campus.
“We have had active shooter training in the past before COVID and a lot of faculties went to those” Diane Carter, a senior lecturer in communications explained “I think they were rightfully kind of disconcerting, and we could definitely raise those again.”
The last remaining words of the night were from Torrey Lawrence, the executive vice president of UI. He lightened the confusion by referring to the University of Phoenix topic.
“We don’t bring on their liabilities,” Lawrence said, “We are insulated from all that financial liability and that’s part of the beauty in this setup.”
In the following weeks, the UI faculty senate will complete the survey. Another draft will be made for review within two weeks.
Next week, the faculty senate will discuss parking on campus, and continuing quality of life on campus.
Sophia Newell can be reached at [email protected]