Chair's Welcome and Update

Chair's Welcome

As a leader in University shared governance, the Senate acts as a liaison on matters of importance to our faculty roles.  We welcome you to learn more about our work and committee efforts in the 2025-26 year, and to learn and connect with all members of the Faculty Senate by reaching out to elected members, the Office of the Faculty Senate and its Chairs.

Senate Co-Chairs:

  • Ann Marie White, EdD, EMBA
  • Hani Awad, PhD

2025-2026 Update

The Faculty Senate's 2025-2026 year was defined by active, institution-wide engagement on issues central to the University of Rochester's academic mission. The Senate advanced inclusive faculty governance, major policy updates, faculty advocacy in response to urgent research and graduate education funding concerns, and an expanded role for faculty voices in academic, research, benefits, and institutional policy decisions.

Inclusive governance: The Senate advanced contract-based faculty representation in core governance such as promotion and tenure structures, supported a new promotion process for long-term contract-based faculty, and updated policy language from non-tenure-track terminology to contract-based faculty terminology.  We continued to collaborate with the Genesee Staff Council on matters of shared importance. We are now proposing revisions to the Senate’s Benefits Committee to expand scope and collaboration with staff members. We aided in leadership position searches.

Policy stewardship: Senators reviewed, debated, amended, and approved substantial policy work on such areas as URochester’s workplace values, research misconduct, non-discrimination language, PADH, academic leave, benefits and retirement language, programs involving minors, research policy, and academic calendar definitions.

Faculty advocacy: The Senate convened a special faculty-only meeting on graduate tuition policy changes, gathered and elevated faculty concerns, and helped catalyze and launch the Task Force on PhD Research and Education in response to university-wide faculty discussions. We added faculty volunteers to the new Benefits Task Force of the University.

Research governance: The Research Policy Committee passed a PI Eligibility policy. We helped complete a unified research misconduct framework for the university in alignment with new federal requirements and URochester’s establishment of an office of research integrity. We updated the intellectual property policy. We began discussions of conflict of interest and conflict of commitment policy development and communication needs to be completed in the coming year. We collaborated with Genesee Staff Council to incorporate staff input on these matters.

Generative AI guidance: The Senate reviewed AI guidance for research and education around data protection, verification, transparency, academic freedom, academic integrity, equitable access, and human oversight. We continued to develop the research arm of the University’s new AI Council – including creating new guidelines for reporting on the transparency of one’s AI use in research. See attached files:

Senate modernization: The Senate pursued an updated parliamentary code, launched a new modernized website, and emphasized inclusive faculty participation by keeping a hybrid attendance model. We hired a new part-time coordinator.