Summary of the Faculty Senate Meeting

April 2, 2025

I. Chair’s Report

The Faculty Senate Chair, Jenny Axe, called the meeting to order at 2:30 pm and presented the Chair’s report:

A. Approval of the Minutes:

1. Faculty senate members voted to approve the minutes.

B. Working Groups

1. Senate Transformation for Enhanced Performance (STEP) Working Group

STEP, which is a working group tasked with reforming the faculty senate, is continuing to meet in two subgroups: function and structure.

2. Faculty Senate Strategic Plan ad hoc Committee

The faculty senate strategic plan committee has its membership in place and will meet before the next senate meeting. The committee will meet periodically during the summer.

C. Creation of University Regulations

The senate has already passed several pieces of legislation to govern senior searches and reviews in academic affairs. The initial intent was to put these into the faculty manual but the fact that the staff manual governs the individuals concerned in their capacity as senior administrators has led a decision to use an alternative approach, which is to create a new type of regulation called university regulations and put the language there. One step in creating or amending university regulations would be passage in the faculty senate, which means this type of regulation is a part of shared governance. To accomplish this, the senate needs to draft a preamble stating what university regulations are and how they can be created and amended. The senate leadership anticipates bringing the preamble and the documents that we passed over the academic year as a single document to the May meeting for senate approval.

2. Provost’s Report – Vicky Wilkins

A. Creation of University Regulations

The provost and president support creating university regulations as discussed above because they welcome the accountability that they would provide.

B. Enrollment

Deposits are lagging slightly (i.e., 23 behind last year’s pace). This is in part due to the addition of early action as an application option for undergraduates; students have until May 15 to decide on offers. Graduate enrollments are a bigger concern, especially enrollments by foreign nationals. In response to the enrollment challenge, the university is expanding the offering reduced rates for asynchronous graduate courses for students outside of the United States and better promotion among current undergraduates of the option of five-year undergraduate/graduate degrees.

C. Budget

Senior university staff is still working on the details of the budget. The deadline for accepting the buyout has not passed. They will present details on the budget at the April community forums.

D. Federal Policy regarding Higher Education:

Chief Communications Officer Matthew Bennett is AU’s lead regarding these matters. The university is assembling an operational policy group like the university’s COVID operational group, though not as large. He would like one faculty member to participate on it. The university also intends to form a faculty-centered advisory group to develop strategy and policy. The aim is to include faculty members with expertise in law, immigration and other salient areas.

The faculty senate leadership expressed an intention to issue an open call to faculty regarding the second group. The executive committee would then pick participants and ask the senate for ratification of the choices.

E. Strategic Plan:

The university leadership has announced the members of eight working groups for the strategic plan. These working groups are starting to meet.

Questions for the Provost:

A senator asked about where things stand with the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights (OCR) complaint regarding alleged antisemitic incidents at American University. The provost responded that there have been no additions to last year’s Brandeis Center for Human Rights letter on the matter. The university leadership has been taking steps to resolve the matter. Some of the statements in the letter are not accurate. University representatives have been working to correct the record. The provost stated that the university has made a lot of forward progress, and said, “At this point, we’re in a good place.”

A second senator asked about American University’s vulnerability to a cutoff of federal funding. The provost responded that AU receives annually approximately $5 million in reimbursement for indirect costs from federal funds and $30 million in total funds for research. This does not include student tuition assistance, such as Pell grants.

3. Action Item: Motion to Revise the Agenda to add a Sense of the Senate Resolution calling for Faculty Involvement in Strategic Planning for coming Federal Attacks on Academic Freedom – John Bracht

Senator John Bracht asked to amend the agenda to add a Sense of the Senate Resolution calling for faculty involvement in strategic planning for coming federal attacks on academic freedom. Senate past chair Tom Merrill seconded the resolution.

Faculty Senate Chair Jenny Axe added the resolution to the agenda after the previously scheduled action items.

4. Action Item: Election of a Senate Vice-Chair for Academic Year 2025-26 – Jenny Axe

Shawn Bates and Jason Snyder had expressed an interest in running for the position in March and wrote statements that the faculty senate executive committee sent to senators in advance of the April senate meeting. Each candidate spoke briefly and fielded questions. The senate elected Jason Snyder as the academic year 2025-26 faculty senate vice-chair.

5. Action Item: Undergraduate Academic Regulation – Unenforced Holds Cleanup - Bridget Trogden and Brad Knight

The original point of creating holds was to reserve course space for first-year students. Much has changed and we no longer use this process, so it is best to remove it from the undergraduate regulations.

6. Action Item: Undergrad and Grad Academic Regulation Revised Language for Add/Drop – Bridget Trogden and Wendy Boland

The time allotted for add/drop at AU is longer than at most other universities. It makes it harder for students to find courses in a timely way because places remain occupied. Moreover, some students coming late into some courses have a difficult time catching up. This is why the proposal shortens the time. A senator asked if shortening the add/drop period would necessitate an awkward process of faculty having to add or re-add students after the deadline, for example, if a student needed a course to graduate. Bridget Trogden assured the senator that this would not be the case.

7. Action Item: Undergraduate Regulations Update on Probation/Dismissal of Course Repeats – Bridget Trogden

The proposal is to eliminate limits on repeating courses. The limits at times have made it difficult for students to graduate and have generated awkward work arounds. The alternative is instead to work on academic success plans. For students repeating courses, Bridget Trogden asserted, the university needs to escalate our support. Students in need of assistance need to work with an academic coach and we need to take a more supportive rather than punitive approach. This change will help move in that direction.

8. Action Item: Graduate Curriculum Committee Senate Bylaw Language Change – Beverly Peters and Shoon Murray

The proposal is to make two changes to the faculty senate bylaws for the Graduate and Curriculum Committee. The first is to state that the Graduate Leadership Council, which is the student governance organization, “may” have a member on the GCC. The current language mandates a GLC member, but the GCC frequently does not name one. The change ensures that the GCC meets its obligations when it comes to the senate bylaws. The committee will welcome a graduate student representative if the GLC proposes one.

The second change is to allow the dean of graduate and professional studies to send a designee to GCC meetings.

9. Action Item: Faculty Manual Misc Changes – Monica Jackson and Priya Doshi

The faculty manual changes remove OGIS and OGPS from several senate committees because they have too few faculty members to serve on numerous committees.

10. Action Item: Sense of the Senate Resolution calling for Faculty Involvement in Strategic Planning for coming Federal Attacks on Academic Freedom – John Bracht

The discussion opened about whether this resolution would help meet the recommendation of the freedom of expression working group to create a permanent body to deal with such issues. Past Chair Tom Merrill responded that it would not because the freedom of expression working group’s suggestion was designed for individual freedom of expression, John Bracht’s proposal was for collective expression.

A senator thanked John Bracht for introducing this resolution and suggested that the implementation of the resolution could be achieved through the faculty-centered advisory group to develop strategy and policy, which the provost discussed at the start of the meeting. Many senators concurred. Several senators contributed suggestions for revising the resolution to facilitate this and John Bracht accepted them as friendly amendments.

Another senator stated that this resolution garnered considerable faculty interest and support. The senator said that there was a lot of energy within the faculty to work on this matter, and a lot of faculty members would like to see the senate do something in this area.

11. For the good of the order – Jenny Axe

There were no items for the good of the order.