a. BOV summary: Drafts of the update on the master plan, the international strategic plan, and the update on the academic strategic plan will go to the BOV in March after town hall meetings held sometime after the first of the year. We expect final approval for all these items in June. The next phase of the restructuring documents was approved. Other items reported to the BOV include: financial aid report on funds left unused; results from work-life surveys; safewatch initiative for faculty, staff, and students; PhD enrollment increased by 100; affordable housing, multi-year funding, and diversity issues for grad students; integrated general education series pilot program.

b. Senate cabinet meeting on 1 Sept. The theme of meeting was how we do business. We still need staff support. We need new Senator orientation; we should implement this as standard procedure starting next year. We will do a brief and belated orientation at next meeting the hour before our meeting. Snacks to be included. Senators should also get a notebook with hardcopies of bylaws, constitution, etc., along with a etter from Senate leaders outlining duties. We need better support from departments. Senate Presidents should send letters to chairs explaining the duties and significance of the Senate. Perhaps we should conduct business more formally, following parliamentary procedure. There is an on-going concern about communicating from commissions and committees. The point is to bring back issues of concern to the Senate. We need to be more responsible in this regard, else the Senate cannot be effective. We should try to streamline reporting mechanisms, perhaps doing it on-line. We will try forwarding minutes of meetings to senate listserv. Keep thinking about how else to report and how to do it better. Connected to all this is a concern about attendance. It is embarrassing. Perhaps we should reinstate some sort of attendance policy.

[Comment from Senate floor: The problem is that this service is not valued at departmental level.]

c. We are still waiting to learn something about senate office space.

d. There is a campus climate checkup on Monday the 14th. Please try to attend.

e. There are town hall meetings by the CRC space committee on 14th and 17th. Let Susanna know if you are going.

a. They (and others) presented the data to 120 department heads and deans on 24 Oct and to the Board of Visitors on 5 Nov.

b. Quick summary of results: men and women both report difficulty balancing work and career, but more women than men have problems. One third report that they are likely to leave their position in next two years. Women are more likely to be married to faculty member. A job for one’s spouse is more important for women faculty. There are ongoing concerns about climate, with women feeling that this is a greater difficulty. Lack of state support and lack of competitive support for research are significant reasons for leaving Tech (as well as salary). Women left Tech at twice the rate as men. The biggest problems for faculty are changing mission and high work demands affecting family-life and health.

c. Comments from Senate floor: Focus groups were selected through nominations. There was a concerted effort to capture all ranks, colleges, genders, views, time here, experiences, etc.

How can we tie data to colleges and where things seem to be working? There are some comparisons, but it is still being analyzed. They are currently working on analysis by rank.

Some of the questions tie into studies done at other universities. Some problems are national. However, we can’t use that as an excuse for not acting. High satisfaction levels comparable. Numbers of hours worked only 1 hour higher than national average. There is research linking these issues to negative health outcomes.

The problem is that faculty are not taking initiatives to fix things. We don’t even give feedback to the administration. We need to do more on our side to work with administration. We need to have room for more faculty service and have this rewarded.

There is a sense of learned hopelessness.

We have invested so much in hiring women and faculty of color, but we are wasting that investment if they are leaving. We need to be model institution regarding how to grow our investment.

The problem is that faculty are perceived as servants/slaves. The focus is on making money and top 30. Nothing is ever enough. It is an invisible crisis. We go quietly out of my mind without disturbing the peace. We are workaholics by nature. Our culture expects us to work all the time and too hard.

Faculty are carrying legacy of being quiet and letting top-heavy administration make decisions.

We have good administrative policies regarding stop the clock and modified duties (under review now). The problem is with departmental cultures, not at higher administrative level. The heads are under pressure to meet higher expectations and so have difficulty being flexible.

We need to pay attention to other institutions that we bump up against, which are also inflexible. We need to make sure our solutions actually fit our problems.

We need to communicate problems better to departments and to heads. We should reward them for being enlightened and following supportive policies.

Much of what we do is invisible on any sort of scale. It is not valued and therefore not rewarded. We become islands with no sharing of best practices. We need to get at what is working. We need to train department heads much better. The problem is that more of what women are doing is invisible, at the home and at the workplace. Women participate in their own invisibility by not confronting the problem. We are seeing a shift across generations regarding parenting and who chooses to go into academia.

The source of solutions must come from faculty. We can’t expect administration to fix this because they are deep experiential problem.

We need to plug into strategic planning process.

How might conversations happen at departmental level? The problem is faculty have no real authority with respect to heads. The problem is there is no culture for the university; there are only cultures in departments, and some of those cultures are not healthy.

a. Faculty network update: Its mission is to facilitate conversations across faculty lines, to improve the general life of faculty. 140 have signed up so far, but only 14 came to the last event.

b. Susanna is shaving head for her play for next meeting. Do not be alarmed; come to the play.