[phas-faculty_staff_others] News from the Senate

[Carlos Bertulani]

Summary of todays’ faculty senate meeting.
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1)- Student scholarship:
(a) The deadline for student application for scholarship is Feb. 28. Next deadline will be June 1.
(b) Each department has at least 2 faculty in the scholarship committee.

2)- Math dept meltdown:
Nikolay Sirakov (Math) reported that the admin decided to tear down one dormitory, move the
faculty out of the  math dept to refurbish it and accommodate the students there.
The university is not worried about teaching quality because the faculty and math students
will move to the last floor of the Journalism building which is in terrible, terrible, conditions.
The math faculty complained to their interim chair (Kent Montgomery) who told them that resistance 
is futile because this has already been decided by the upper admin.  

3)- Illegal foreign students:
ICE federal agents will be con campus and search for illegal students. You will get into big trouble if you
support or hide an illegal student. Foreign students must be enrolled in at least 12 hours (fully enrolled), otherwise
they are illegal. Some schools are asking instructors to have a sign in sheet  in classroom. Illegal students are afraid
and not are showing up in classroom. It is not clear what to do in online classes.

4)- Faculty workload:
Was again discussed. Nothing new than what I've reported before, except for a few things I did not
know: (a) courses taught by adjuncts in the summer do not bring compensation to the dept. The dept compensation
disappears  in a black hole. (b) Student independent study in the summer does not bring any dept compensation either.

5)-  Faculty salaries:
The provost has $500,000 for permanent faculty compensation this year. About $100-150 k will be separated to increase faculty
salaries that are too much below the (national?, local?) average. A consulting company was hired and identified about 25 faculty 
in this situation. The rest of the funds might be going to the remaining faculty, but nobody knows yet what will be the criteria. There
will be a survey in a google doc  asking for input. Not all faculty might be invited for the input.  Also nobody knows how much the 
consulting company costs. Perhaps $500,000.

6)- Regents professor ceremony might be organized in the music department. Not decided yet.

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