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Faculty Senate debuts Web site
A new searchable, user-friendly Web site for the Faculty Senate was introduced to members of the senate’s executive committee at its April 29 meeting.
Robert G. Hoeing, associate professor of linguistics and senate chair, said he hopes the new site will facilitate greater engagement of faculty with the senate, using such new features as an online suggestion box and discussion board.
“These are two things I really wanted to be a part of the new site,” said Hoeing, who hopes the features will serve as fruitful source of agenda item suggestions, among other things.
The suggestion box is open to anyone who wishes to submit feedback to the Faculty Senate, publicly or anonymously, he added. The discussion forum is limited to members of the voting faculty, who also may post anonymously. All UB voting faculty members are automatically enrolled in the system, which is accessible via UBLearns and appears as “Faculty Senate” under their list of courses.
After several FSEC members questioned the need for anonymous postings, Robert Adelman, association professor of sociology, pointed out that junior faculty members might feel more comfortable raising controversial issues using this option.
Senators were introduced to the site by its creators, Robin Sullivan and Mili Pradhan, an instructional designer and student assistant in the Teaching & Learning Center, respectively.
Sullivan pointed out that another major change to the Web site is the addition of a search function, which enables users to pull information on a particular topic from meeting minutes dating back to Oct. 24, 1995.
“It uses the Google search engine, so it should be pretty reliable if you use the right terms,” she said.
Also available to all users will be an archive of PowerPoint presentations shown during FSEC meetings, an events calendar, meeting schedules, important documents and a complete list of senators, including contact information for the chair, secretary and staff assistant.
In addition, Hoeing brought up the possibility of posting audio from committee meetings to the Web site, especially if no one volunteers to assume the role of secretary, which is being vacated by Carine Mardorossian, associate professor of English, at the end of the semester.
The general design of the Web site is based upon a similar site for the Professional Staff Senate, Sullivan added.
Click here to view the new Faculty Senate Web site. .
In other business, senators approved the FSEC calendar for the 2009-10 academic year. The FSEC will continue to meet at 2:30 p.m. every Wednesday during the academic year, except for the week of the full Faculty Senate meeting, which takes place at 2 p.m. on the first Tuesday of the month. All meetings, except for executive sessions, are open to the public.
Hoeing noted that he may call an “emergency session” of the FSEC during the summer in light of the university’s increasingly difficult budget situation.
The final meeting of the semester of the full Faculty Senate is scheduled for 2 p.m. May 5 in the Center for Tomorrow, North Campus.
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