“I’m coming into my fourth year as the Academic Senate policy liaison, and I really enjoy the work. I represent the faculty at the Institutional Policy Committee campus-wide group, and I weigh in on the policies and what they mean and how that impacts professors and teachers and librarians.

My day job is being a librarian and I’m on the faculty at the Marriott Library, where I specialize in the scholarly communication world. My day-to-day is helping people find places to publish and answering their copyright and ownership questions. And clearly conveying the rules.

This (policy liaison) position is just interesting because it’s got that additional piece where it can be like, ‘Well, can the rules be different?’ Like, ‘Can we change the rules that maybe are not going to work?’ Like in copyright and publishing rules. I mean, you would have to go through Congress, so it’s not like I could be like, ‘Oh, let’s go change the federal copyright.’

As the policy liaison, it’s much more immediate—this is going to really impact the process of teaching or other kinds of research. It’s kind of got that nice immediacy where you’re actually going to see it coming to fruition. So many people are trying to work hard for the campus

The policy team is really good. The senate office team is really good. And all the senators are really good. And all the policy officers are really doing their best and working hard to create these fair processes and procedures.

I think the main message I want people to know is that the Academic Senate is alive and well and thriving. We have really fun socials, we have packed agendas and we have lively, intense debates. And it is a very vibrant area of the university.

It’s a good institution. It’s really strong in shared governance and actively participating in shared governance, it’s not lip service, it’s really an actual, realistic activity and daily practice.”

—Allyson Mower, Academic Senate policy liaison, and Scholarly Communication & Copyright Librarian