[phas-faculty_staff_others] Meeting with president and provost

[Carlos Bertulani]

Dear Faculty,

Today, Feb 3, 2025, about 10 senators had a private  meeting with the president and the provost. A summary follows.

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1- Stephen Starnes (Chemistry) suggested that researchers should get teaching credit for mentoring students, specially in the Summer. This subject is old in this university and as expected the discussion went in numerous directions. To be short, the president suggested that each department should submit its own policy and pass by the administration (deans, mainly) for approval. We know that.

Stephen mentioned that most departments (70%) do not have a written workload policy. He said the best example of a good work policy is the Physics dept.

The president is in full support for crediting mentoring counting as part of teaching load. But apart from saying that a new task force has been created to re-study the policy, he did not mention any other actions.

2- Some faculty are worried with the quality of teaching because they see students less interested in good grades, they miss exams, deadlines and so on. The president mentioned that this is a nationwide problem. It is not an easy problem to solve because students are distracted and have their time largely reduced by so many digital activities (internet, video games, social media, etc). They do not find the time to study.

The president asked what we are doing to improve the quality of teaching. A few faculty mentioned that they engage with students, research how to get them involved, and other time-consuming activities. I told the president that I have long time ago lowered my student expectation standards because otherwise too many students would fail and I would get into trouble. He agreed that this is happening as well as the other senators in the room. Some mentioned that retention seems to be the driver of lower quality of teaching and lower standards.

3- Jason Davis (Engineering and Technology) mentioned that we should start teaching the students how to use AI to help them learning class material. Some faculty are afraid of AI. But this is the future and we have to find a way to get the best out of it.

4- The president asked if we work as a team. It was not easy to understand what he meant.  Isn’t working in committees a team work? Not much learned from this discussion.

5- Deans and dept heads evaluations: The provost said this is being worked out. Some surveys will be provided. But the president said that he will have absolute control over the survey results as this is a contentious subject. Of course, he encourages us to fill in the comments in the survey if we do not like the efficiency or actions of an administrator. But one needs to discuss with the administrator under closed doors and if there is a punishment, it does not need to be broadcasted to the whole university.

6- The faculty senate president (Yasemin Antic) started presenting her thoughts about "shared governance" when the president interrupted to mention some recent events:
(a)  the Texas governor apparently wants leaders of Texas institutions to be removed if they support DEI or, e.g., the LGBTQ community.
(b) the US department of education is under attack. Its existence is in danger. Be prepared.
(c)  after that they probably will go to introduce legislation to end tenure statewide and nationwide.

Probably you have noticed that the president has been cautious in his recent messages. I think that we should try to understand his vulnerable position. We have lost part of our democracy now that one can be terminated for expressing support to minorities, specially in written fashion, if one is in a leadership position.  
The president said that he supports an instructor that closes the door and discusses political opinions with students. This is not so important in physics, but in some departments is the base of student's education. 

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Best regards,
Carlos