A legislative calendar has been prepared to make it possible to legislate on all of these matters this year. In the case of each issue, committees and councils have been working since last spring to prepare the way for legislation. Now, each of these topics is being taken up by the pertinent faculty council or, in the case of the openness in tenure and promotion process, by the executive committee. This methodical plan for the preparation of and for legislation will ensure that these matters will be debated and discussed and, if the responsible councils and executive committee so recommend, brought to the Senate floor for discussion and deliberation.

My goal for the year is not that we pass any particular piece of legislation, but rather that we follow an orderly, codified process for addressing the issues such that the will of the faculty is considered, tested and expressed in and through our actions.

Sorting out Chapter 24
Second, last year our faculty and President McCormick jointly approved historic additions and changes to Chapter 24 of the Faculty Code. Like any code, this one will require interpretation and implementation, and this will entail a great deal of work by faculty and administrators in the coming year. Some faculty members have expressed concerns about some aspects of the new provisions, and I have invited them to make constructive suggestions as to improvements that could be made. If these suggestions come soon enough in the legislative year, and I hope they do, and they pass the test of discourse in the pertinent faculty committees and councils, then the Senate might be asked to deliberate about such suggested revisions.

Shared vision for the UW’s future
Third, this will be a year in which our faculty will join with our administration in conducting a yearlong conversation about the future of the UW. Last June, I formed a committee of faculty members, drawn broadly from throughout the university, to develop a faculty-based statement as to the core values that should guide and inspire the most important decisions that the university makes in charting its course for the coming years. The Board of Deans had, at the same time, developed a plan for conducting such a conversation, led by the administration.

During the months of June, July, August and September the Senate leadership held a series of intensive discussions with a broad sample of our faculty to determine a faculty position on whether and how such a conversation should be conducted about the university’s future. As a result of these meetings, I concluded that the university would be best served if the faculty and the administration made this a joint endeavor, and after a series of discussions, a group of faculty and administrative leaders produced a working plan for such a cooperative enterprise.

As a result of the summer’s discussions, our faculty and administration will jointly conduct a year-long conversation about a vision for the future of the University of Washington. The purposes of this process are to enhance the level and quality of unit-based strategic thinking at the university, to provide an opportunity for our units to talk with each other about best practices and ideas for enhancing the work of all units, and to assist our central administration as well as our individual units to articulate persuasively to potential benefactors the kind of contribution that we can, with their help, make to our society through our research, education and service.

Throughout the coming year, both President McCormick and I will invite and encourage our faculty to become active participants in this process. Faculty participation can take many forms, including, but not limited to, suggesting ways that this conversation can be productively facilitated, attending and participating in various forums and discussions that will be held, and encouraging their units to do an even better job at strategic thinking than they have done in the past.

In his annual address to the university community, on Oct. 5, at 3:30 p.m., in Kane 130, President McCormick will begin the conversation with an invitation to our faculty and administration, as well as to all others who are concerned with the future of the university, to become active participants in the process. I urge all members of the faculty, and particularly all members of the Senate, to attend this important meeting.

Furthermore, I have assembled a group of distinguished faculty, drawn from throughout our three-campus university, to advise me and the Senate leadership on how faculty can best participate in and respond to the conversation as it unfolds. You will hear more about the deliberations of this group as well as about other aspects of the process throughout the coming year as our faculty and administration join to engage the entire university community in affirming our historic mission as well as interpreting how to carry it out in the century that lies ahead.

Increasing faculty participation
Fourth, and finally, I want our faculty to be aware that one of the principal goals of the elected Senate leadership this year will be to increase and strengthen the ways that faculty exercise their share of what we call shared governance. Below is one of my favorite passages from the university’s Faculty Code:

“Because of its diversity of interests a university is a complex organization, not quite like any other in its management, which requires the understanding and good faith of people dedicated to a common purpose. A university administration must seek wisely and diligently to advance the common effort, and the strength of a university is greatest when its faculty and administration join for the advancement of common objectives.”

With Vice Chair Mary Coney, who is also the chair of the Senate Committee on Planning and Budgeting, I pledge to the faculty that we will set ourselves the task of increasing and strengthening the degree to which our faculty is involved in shaping the most important decisions this university makes with regard to top-level planning and budgeting decisions.

There are two reasons why our faculty should be centrally involved in the shaping of the most important governance decisions made at this university. One is because our Faculty Code directs us to do it. The other reflects my own assumption that a university is best governed to the extent that its faculty and administration participate as true partners not only in the implementation, but also in the shaping, of the most important matters of university governance. Vice Chair Coney and I will make regular reports to you this year as to our progress in achieving this goal, as we will in other matters of Senate activity. ¶

Gerry Philipsen
Chair, Faculty Senate