Faculty Senate passes shared governance memorandum

The document is a memorandum of understanding and is meant to create participation and cooperation between faculty and senators in making decisions.

"The document provides an opportunity each time a decision is made to get input by both sides," said Sen. Shirley O'Brien, associate director of the University of Arizona agriculture extension.

Several senators raised concerns over specific wording in the document or items that were not included.

However, Sen. Joann Glittenberg, nursing professor, said debate on the details was not productive.

"It is a living document," she said, and recommended passing the document, which had already gone through 10 revisions, and working to refine it later.

The Senate embraced that idea and passed the memorandum.

After it was passed, Sen. J.D. Garcia, a physics professor, made a motion to present the document to the full faculty for a vote.

Sen. Eugene Levy, dean of the College of Science, opposed Garcia's motion, asking what effect a faculty vote would have after the Senate already approved the plan.

"The faculty is well aware of this document and their comments have been considered," said Sen. Larry Schooley, electrical and computer engineering professor and chair of the Academic Personnel Policy Committee. The committee developed the shared governance document.

Garcia's motion failed after the Senate decided that as elected representatives, the senators had acted in the faculty's best interests. The faculty have reviewed the document three times.

The Senate also passed a university-wide faculty promotion and tenure document, which the Arizona Board of Regents requested last year from all three state universities.

The guidelines were developed to create an equalized standard for evaluation considering the differing duties of faculty in various departments.

Teaching, research and service are the three elements that are reviewed in the promotion and tenure process and are outlined in the document.