Academic Senate News

Message to the Academic Senate and to the Faculty

by Munashe Furusa | August 25, 2008

I would like to thank you for placing your trust and confidence in me and electing me to serve as your Academic Senate Chair. I wish to extend my gratitude to the previous chairs and executive committees for constructing the foundation upon which the new cabinet will build. In particular, I would like to thank, Dr. Kate Fawver who nobly served as chair of the Academic Senate on short notice and worked hard to enhance Faculty and Senate participation in university affairs. This year, the Executive Committee and I will work dutifully in the Academic Senate to insure the protection of academic freedom, to safeguard faculty participation in policy formation, to ensure collegial governance, to maintain application of "joint responsibility," and continue the faculty role of defining the mission of the University.

One of the greatest resources of this campus is its dynamic, talented and dedicated faculty. Though faculty resources are minimal in this time of budget crises, our goals are ambitious. We possess a strong will, firm resolve and conviction to transform this campus into an academically competitive urban university, the university of choice. Therefore, it is both necessary and urgent that faculty be made central to the development and growth of our campus. Faculty development and retention should be made a major priority in our strategic planning. If we are to achieve student retention then the university should work faithfully to support and retain faculty.

Faculty, through the Academic Senate, formulate, evaluate and recommend to the President of the university, policies and procedures pertinent to the development, maintenance, and improvement of the university. The future of the university depends, to a large extent, on the Academic Senate’s capacity, vision, wisdom, and our determination to generate and implement innovative and relevant ideas and policies consistent with our University’s mission. The University should harness the faculty’s ability to marshal creative energy and solutions by providing the resources necessary to create cutting edge programs and curricula and to present them through methods and strategies that would encourage our students to complete their studies here.

The other major asset that this university possesses is the congenial relationship that has been built between the Academic Senate and the Administration. Such a relationship is essential for genuine dialogue and trust regarding the future of our university. These relations depend upon establishing a basis for mutual respect.

I would like to conclude by saying that I am aware of the challenging times ahead especially in regards to budget cuts and hiring freezes. Our university, like many of our sister campuses, is at cross-roads. Chinua Achebe, an African novelist, reminds us that two things can happen at the cross-roads. One may die fighting hydra-headed monsters or one may emerge with a clear vision that may positively transform the community. Right now, more than ever, we are in need of keen vision. Shakespeare’s observation is instructive in this regard. He wrote in Julius Caesar that, “There is a tide in the affairs men [and women]/ Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;/ Omitted, all voyage of their life is bound in shallows and miseries.” There is a tide of change on our campus today. If we collectively, faculty, staff and administration, in reciprocal relationships, wrap our hands around this rhythm of change and translate it into fair and just policies, practices and procedures, I am confident that a new chapter in the history of this university will begin to take shape. Thank you.