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University Faculty Senate Discussion Forum
The University Faculty Senate is the representative body of Penn State’s faculty with legislative authority on all matters pertaining to the educational interests of the University and all educational matters that concern the faculties of more than one college. In addition, the Senate is recognized by the University as an advisory and consultative body to the President on all matters that may affect the attainment of the University’s educational objectives.
Dear Members of the Faculty Senate,
I am posting because I am deeply concerned about the search process for PSU’s new president. Only 1 of the 18 members of the selection committee is a faculty member, there are no staff members, and there is only 1 student (undergrad). Most of the committee is made up of BOT members who have no work experience in higher education. I have completed the Nextgen survey, and I encourage everyone to do that as well. However, the Nextgen committee is merely advisory. Faculty and staff have an enormous role to play in the university, and they need to to play a primary role in the selection process.
I have created a petition about this that has thus far garnered 370 signatures. If this is something that you agree with, please consider signing and sharing widely. Here is the link: http://chng.it/KW7bhr6T
Personally, a primary concern that I have is the corporatization of higher education. We can see trends like this by looking at the disaster at the University of Iowa when they hired someone outside of academics:
https://www.insidehighered.com/…/appointment…
https://www.insidehighered.com/…/university-iowa…
Here’s another disaster from the U. of Missouri:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Wolfe
This type of thing is worrisome at Penn State, too. For example, here is a video posted by Penn Staters for Responsible Stewardship. It was a town hall for six candidates running for Alumni Trustee. You can watch the into, and then skip to the 32:14 mark to hear their thoughts on the traits they stress in our next PSU president.
https://www.facebook.com/PS4RS/videos/?ref=page_internal
Indeed, with the recent hiring of Barbara Wilson at Iowa, we can see that the university seems to have realized their mistake. Penn State stands in stark contrast to our Big-10 peers. Please see an article published today in Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeltnietzel/2021/05/01/new-leadership-for-the-big-ten-universities-the-glass-ceiling-is-cracking/?sh=1e13c0c22925
I respectfully request that the Faculty Senate take a stance against the search process that is currently implemented. Should we hire a non-academic as our next president, it will jeopardize our educational mission and will be profoundly demoralizing to our faculty, staff, and grad/professional students.
Yours,
Mary Beth Oliver
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Mary Beth Oliver, Bellisario Professor of Media Studies
President Elect, International Communication Association
Bellisario College of Communications
213 Carnegie Building
Penn State University
University Park, PA 16802
PH: (814) 863-5552
Fax: (814) 863-8161
email: mbo@psu.edu
she/her/hers
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Will an official syllabus statement be created for fall regarding students, zoom, and requirement for video, especially when testing?
I am an electrical engineering senior student. I am taking a course which will have an exam held on Monday (March 23). The professor mentioned that the exam will be downloaded from canvas and students will have to post their scanned solutions on canvas in one hour and forty minutes. He also mentioned that he has no control over who helps the student solve the exam which will be unfair for other students who will solve the exam on their own. I believe if there is no exam proctoring, there should be no exams taking place for the sake of fair learning environment.