If you missed the Academic Senate meeting on Nov. 4, 2019, or need a refresher, then keep reading for the highlights from the meeting. For more information on the Academic Senate, click here.
Reports
Administration
President Ruth V. Watkins informed the Senate of the $150 million gift from the Huntsman family for the creation of the Huntsman Mental Health Institute to bolster the existing University Neuropsychiatric Institute and psychiatry department with a focus on improving public awareness of mental illness, research into genetic causes and access—especially for college-age and rural patients. The wrap-up of SafeU Month was also discussed.
ASUU
ASUU President Anna Barnes informed the Senate of the success of the October student listening session and of how active ASUU has been.
Debate Calendar
Undergraduate Certificate in Computational Linguistics
Scott Jarvis presented on the proposed certificate. The Department of Linguistics, in partnership with the School of Computing, proposes a new undergraduate certificate in Computational Linguistics that will provide students with specialized training in a growing area of data science where jobs are abundant and salaries are relatively high. This is the field of research and industry that has created language translation applications, speech recognition software, text-to-speech tools, plagiarism detection protocols and many other useful language-related technologies.
The certificate was approved by the Senate.
Information and Recommendations Calendar
Senate Advisory Committee on Diversity Update
After hearing from Dr. Robert Flores regarding the charge and scope of the committee, four initial subcommittees were formed that will research, develop recommendations then report back to the SACD each month. Those subcommittees are the following:
Review of sister institutions and the literature
Michelle Peets (Chair) and Alex Steele
Creation of statements that link diversity with hiring, RPT and other annual evaluations of campus staff, faculty and administrators.
Mo Laguan (Chair), Clare Lemke, Mary Anne Berzins, David Derezotes
Land acknowledgment
Kate Mattingly (Chair), Shami Kanekar, Kalani Raphael, and Mary Burbank
Student safety and university culture
Michael Gills (Chair), Enfany Ngo, Taha Benabdallah, Clare Lemke, Marcia Cook de Wolfe and Gregoria Alegria
For more information on this, contact David Derezotes at dderezotes@socwk.utah.edu.
CIB2 Committee Update
Andrea K. Rorrer and Robert Flores provided an overview and progress report of the Draft Guidance Document for University Academic Centers and Institutes. They extended the opportunity for input to refine the Draft Guidance Document and guide the university policy revision, which will be available for review by spring 2020.