UAS Meaningful Shared Governance Resolution

Resolution for Consideration

By the University Academic Senate (UAS) Proposed for Consideration on March 21, 2022

WHEREAS:

1. University leadership announced on March 2, 2022, that the wearing of masks to protect Marquette community members from COVID-19 infections would become optional.
2. The Chair of the University Academic Senate notified faculty on March 3, 2022, that she had communicated to the Provost that “[she] would like to be engaged in the decision process on behalf of faculty;” that “Provost Ah Yun reached out on Friday (Feb 25) to inform [her] that the COVID-19 Response Team was meeting to discuss our mask policy;” she repeated her opinion concerning the policy at that time; that she was told by the Provost on February 28, 2022, that “the response team would finalize recommendations and those recommendations would go to the ELT;” that the Provost said that “had passed along [her] position on this issue to both the response team and the President’s Cabinet;” that, in response, she made an additional request concerning the timing of any change to the mask policy; and that, on March 2, the ELT modified the mask policy, which modification did not incorporate, or even address, either of the Chair’s stated concerns.
3. Whatever the decision, there was no urgency that the decision be made without the opportunity for faculty, including the Chair, to participate in the decision-making process by conveying faculty positions and concerns beyond the recommendations that the Chair forwarded to the Provost.
4. To date, the Provost has not provided any specific public response to the concerns voiced by the Chair or to the concerns of other faculty about health and safety after the elimination of the mandatory mask wearing requirement on campus.
   
   

THEREFORE RESOLVED:

5. That the Chair should be commended for her efforts to represent the interests of faculty and her willingness to report comprehensively to faculty the limits placed on her ability to represent their concerns.
6. That, irrespective of the merits of the Chair’s recommendations or of the final decision made, the failure of the Provost to permit at least the Chair of the UAS to engage directly with the COVID-19 response team and the other members of the ELT on behalf of faculty is inconsistent with meaningful shared governance.
7. That, where the circumstances do not require an immediate decision, that UAS expects that, in issues that concern faculty and student health and safety on campus and in the classroom, the ELT will provide faculty with an opportunity for meaningful shared governance, which should include, at a minimum, an opportunity for one or more elected faculty representatives to engage directly with decision makers and those charged with providing recommendations to explain faculty concerns and to rebut any arguments contrary to those concerns.