Faculty Senate

In the 1930s there was talk of a representative faculty senate that would reduce the number of faculty attending meetings and provide more time for deliberation of issues brought to the faculty. In the late 1940s, as the number of faculty approached one thousand, meetings of the faculty became cumbersome. They had to be held in the Alumni Memorial Auditorium, and the speakers required microphones for the assembled faculty to hear. Substantive discussion of issues was not possible at these assemblies, and the faculty pressed for creation of a faculty senate. A constitution for a faculty senate was approved by the board of trustees in 1949, and the senate began to function in 1950 and met quarterly. The organization included administrators who served ex officio and elected representatives from each college. A University Senate, chaired by the vice chancellor for academic affairs was instituted with the change in governance to a university system. In 1972 the University Senate was rechartered and reconstituted as a faculty senate. Dr. Charles Keenan, professor of chemistry, was elected the first president of the new Faculty Senate.