Subject: Meeting with Faculty Senate Leadership June 9, 2022 1PM Chancellor Plowman and Provost Zomchick, Thank you for arranging to meet with us on Thursday June 9 at 1PM in the AHT 8th Floor Conference room. We appreciate the opportunity to include incoming President-Elect Amber Roessner and incoming immediate past-President Bonnie Ownley to assist in the transition of Senate leadership. Below are some topics for possible discussion. 1. On a "big picture issue" we suggest that it might be beneficial to foster discussion about university-scale evaluation procedures regarding audit and assessment of various programs. A formalized evaluation is in place for academic units at department level for accreditation but we are not sure what processes are in place for the host of other university programs and how faculty might assist in potentially providing suggestions for mechanisms to assist beyond the overall metrics in the strategic vision. 2. Academic restructuring - we suggest that though the Senate has no formal role in final decisions about campus operations other than curricular, it would be beneficial to avoid conflict as much as possible as any restructuring proceeds. One way to reduce conflict is through transparency so it might be helpful to discuss the role of the faculty and Senate in the next steps for: (a) providing input on the specific affinity and overlay proposals to be presented in August-Sept and (b) soliciting faculty responses and summarizing these from the perspective of the impact of each proposal on faculty and curricular matters. We suggest that making the decision process as transparent as possible will enhance the potential for buy-in from the broad campus community affected by the proposals. 3. Research - we continue to have ongoing concerns about the huge amount of State funding that is budgeted now for research initiatives that are mainly divorced from the many faculty who actually generate external funding. We do not believe that the plans for the large amount of funding for UTORII (e.g. invest in research faculty/staff located at ORNL) will have major impact on the five-year transformational progress and operational metrics in the strategic vision for research nor will this initiative lead to success in obtaining major externally funded center-scale projects. There are ways these funds might be reconsidered to better align with the strategic vision metrics. 4. Policy on Bullying - We understand that there is a revision being considered for the campus. We encourage putting some policy in place and would be happy to comment on changes to the drafts the Senate has encouraged. 5. Raises - According to the Provost, there is no overall campus guidance this year regarding a minimum raise for lowest-paid employees - all raise issues are up to Deans and unit leaders with limited central oversight. We remain concerned not only about our lowest compensated employees but as well that this opens potential for large differences and perhaps inequities across colleges over time. 6. Non-tenure track faculty title changes - What else might the Senate do to foster this? This connects to the need for handbook changes (the Senate NTT Committee has been working on this) and the status of a new person in the General Counsel's office to assist the campus in a timely manner on such handbook and policy changes. Stay well, Lou