April 2026 Senate Minutes

Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes

April 13, 2026
3:00-5:00pm
Grand Reading Room

Members present:

Dilshod Achilov, Heloisa Alves, Nikolay Anguelov, Robin Arkerson, Anupama Arora, Brian Ayotte, Heidi Berggren, Sankha Bhowmick, R. Thomas Boone, Dario Borim, Joshua Botvin, Julie Bowman, Shuowei Cai, Eric Casero, Wencheng Chang, Jennifer Clark, Christopher Clinton, Robert Darst, Megan Dawe, Katherine DeLuca, Anna Dempsey, Christopher Eisenhart, Shari Evans, Meghan Fair, Keota Fields, Megan Fletcher, Caroline Gelmi, Lorraine Heffernan, Susan Hunter Revell, Kristopher Jackson, Shakhnoza Kayumova, Firas Khatib, Saeja Kim, Cait Lanza, Eric Larson, Crystal Lubinsky, Devon Lynch, David Manke, Kenneth Manning, Maricris Mayes, Chad McGuire, Kari Mofford, Catherine Neto, Grant O’Rielly, Lisa Owens, Sonia Pacheco, Elena Peteva, Amanda Rioux, Nicholas Santavicca, Frank Scarano, Monika Schuler, Timothy Shea, Glaucia Silva, Matthew Sneider, Catharine Urbano, Jennifer Viveiros, Mary Wilson, Emma Wood, Liudong Xing

Members Absent:

Erin Bromage, Kathryn Caldera, Geoffrey Cowles, Margaret Drew, Maureen Eckert, Robert Fisher, Laura Franz, Catherine Gardner, Rui Huang, David Kagan, Robin Kish, Peeranuch LeSeure, Kristen McHenry, Cristina Mehrtens, Pia Moisander, Ziddi Msangi, Jennifer Mulnix, Richard Peltz-Steele, Bharatendra Rai, Douglas Roscoe, Mark Silby, Amit Tandon

16 GUESTS

FACULTY SENATE MEETING AGENDA

April 13, 2026, 3:00-5:00pm, Grand Reading Room

Call to Order at 3:04pm

Approval of March minutes

- No objections – Minutes approved

President’s Report (Brian Ayotte)

- Technology committee sent out survey on faculty resources on AI

- Revised process on curriculum

- May meeting has been moved to the 19th to accommodate the Lavendar Celebration

Committee Reports

- First-Year Grading Committee (David Cabral)

- - Overview of students the recommendations would apply to

- - - Proposal 1: Safe harbor grading – adjust grades that are D+ and lower to no credit

- - - - Helps preserve GPA for struggling students

- - - - Deeply complicated – impacts on GPA, advising, etc.

- - - Proposal 2: Withdrawal deadline extension for first-year students

- - - - Move deadline to last day of classes

- - - - Provides students who must retake a course exposure to the materials

- - - - Requires potential schedule adjustments afterwards

- - - Discussion of the proposals

- General Education Committee (Matthew Sneider)

- - Recommendation to update the 1E course outcomes

- - - Proposal from the 1E Coordinators Committee

- - - Rationale for the change

- - - Discussion of the proposed outcome changes

- - - Motion to adopt the proposal as written

- - - - Made (Robert Darst) and seconded (Chad McGuire)

- - - - Second reading to take place at the May meeting

- By-Laws Committee (Shakhnoza Kayumova)

- - Motion to adopt the proposed procedure for a Vote of No Confidence

- - - Discussion of process

- - - Made (David Manke) and seconded (R. Thomas Boone)

- - - - Motion to call the question made (Grant O’Rielly)

- - - - Motion passes – 1 abstention, 1 opposed

- - - - Motion passes – 1 abstention, 2 opposed

Invited Guests

- None

Unfinished Business

- None

New Business

- Motion on Budget Transparency (David Manke)

- - Presentation on budget data transparency at UMass Amherst and UMass Dartmouth

- - Motion to make a recommendation to the Chancellor that all budgetary information should be provided publicly just as it is by UMass Amherst

- - - Made (Crystal Lubinsky) and seconded (Monika Schuler)

- - - - Amendment made (Catharine Urbano) to send the request to the Attorney General and cc the Chancellor

- - - - Amendment withdrawn (Catharine Urbano)

- - - - Motion to add language asking that a plan to release the information be provided within 60 days, and if not, then forward to the Attorney General