Rules Committee

Today, I was nominated to stand for the rules committee of the faculty senate. Several people have pointed out that the Rules Committee avoids having unbiased elections: they usually appoint people to empty seats and put forward a slate with only a single candidate and, although they allow nominations from the floor, these candidates never win. In spite of that, I agreed to stand and wrote a brief statement:

I'd like to thank Max for nominating me and for his kind words.

This is my third term as faculty senator, although I've served the faculty senate in various capacities for 16 years -- since I first arrived at the University. I've served on many faculty senate committees and councils -- too numerous to name -- and chaired several as well.

I'm particularly interested in serving on the rules committee exactly now due to several current issues where I believe my expertise could bear on important decisions the campus needs to make.

The chancellor has identified the need to document the value of a face-to-face education. I co-chaired the committee where the Biology Department developed and adopted learning goals for the major. These learning goals been influential to pedagogy in the department and a model for other departments across campus. I have long advocated this approach as the foundation of a grass-roots assessment strategy that could document to external constituencies the value of a UMass education. I believe we must move in this direction before a top down approach is imposed upon us.

Furthermore, as a science educator, instructional technologist, and internet strategist, I'm familiar with the technologies and approaches being used to develop MOOCs and have insight into their strengths and limitations.

I have also been a champion of the campus' growing use of Free Software where we have adopted first Drupal and now Moodle for building our networked infrastructure. A key facet of this approach is having the intelligence (that is, the people) to adapt the resources to our needs embedded on our campus, rather than in some vendor that is all too often unresponsive to our needs.

I am also a non-tenure-system faculty member and am interested in ensuring that the academic rights and freedoms of all UMass faculty are protected. The current events surrounding Barbara Madeloni remind us that attention to this principle is both important and necessary.

Finally, as many of you know, I'm committed to open and transparent faculty governance. I hope you'll give me the opportunity to serve the faculty on the rules committee.

Thank you.

Unsurprisingly, I didn't win. The faculty senate actually has as many administrators as it does faculty. I think I'll propose a change to the bylaws in which we change the name to "Administrators/Faculty Senate".

It's a mixed blessing to not win. I would very much like to advocate for these particular issues, which few other people on campus really care about or even understand. But I have plenty to do with my time.