October 2026 Senate Meeting Minutes

Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes
October 14, 2026
3:00-5:00pm
Grand Reading Room/Zoom

Members Present:

Amanda Rioux, Amit Tandon, Bharatendra Rai, Caroline Gelmi, Caterina Miraglia, Catharine Urbano, Chad McGuire, Christopher Eisenhart, Crystal Lubinsky, Dario Borim, David Manke, Devon Lynch, Dilshod Achilov, Douglas Marshall, Elena Peteva, Emma Wood, Eric Casero, Firas Khatib, Frank Scarano, Glaucia Silva, Grant O’Rielly, Heidi Berggren, Heloisa Alves, Jennifer Mammen, Jennifer Mulnix, Jennifer Viveiros, Joshua Botvin, Julie Bowman, Kenneth Manning, Keota Fields, Kristen McHenry, Lisa Owens, Lorraine Heffernan, Maricris Mayes, Martha Whitfield, Mary Wilson, Matthew Sneider, Megan Dawe, Neal Olitsky, Nikolay Anguelov, Patrick Cappillino, R. Thomas Boone, Richard Peltz-Steele, Robert Darst, Robin Arkerson, Saeja Kim, Shakhnoza Kayumova, Shari Evans, Shuowei Cai, Sonia Pacheco, Timothy Shea, Wei-Shun Chang, Wencheng Chang, Yuzhu Li

Members Absent:

Anna Dempsey, Anupama Arora, Brian Ayotte, Cait Lanza, Christopher Clinton, Dapeng Li, David Kagan, Douglas Roscoe, Erin Bromage, Geoffrey Cowles, James March Mistler, Jennifer Clark, Katherine DeLuca, Kristopher Jackson, Liudong Xing, Margaret Drew, Mark Silby, Megan Fletcher, Meghan Fair, Nicholas Santavicca, Peeranuch LeSeure, Pia Moisander, Robin Kish, Sankha Bhowmick, Scott Ahrens, Ziddi Msangi

26 GUESTS

FACULTY SENATE MEETING AGENDA

October 14, 2026, 3:00-5:00pm, Grand Reading Room/Zoom

• Call to Order at 3:05pm

• Approval of September minutes

• • Minutes approved through unanimous consent

• President’s Report (Chad McGuire)

• • Reminder to committees to meet and elect a chair and secretary

• • Update on September’s motion

• • • Deb Majewski will be present to explain later at today’s meeting

• • Update on motion re budget transparency

• • • Expenditure report has been provided covering the past four years

• • • Available on the university’s website

• • Center Five-Year Reviews

• • • Cybersecurity, Molecular Diagnostics, and Portuguese Studies and Culture

• • • Selection of full-time tenured faculty to serve on the review committees

• • Simplified Robert’s Rules of Order

• • • Will be uploaded to the Canvas site

• • • Quick reference guide that covers the general things that come up often

• Board of Trustees Representative Report (Kristen McHenry)

• • BOT meeting held in September

• • • Systemwide priorities: Continued investment in sustainability, decarbonization; workforce development programs in nursing, cybersecurity, AI, healthcare, clean energy; and strengthening student success, career readiness, and experiential learning

• • • Systemwide challenges: federal research funding and need to diversify revenue sources that support research and innovation

• • Intercampus Faculty Council followed the BOT meeting

• • • Common across campuses: efforts to streamline administrative support, AI initiatives, focus on career preparaion, organizational restructuring of departments/programs

• Committee Reports

• • Ad Hoc Campus Climate Committee (Chelsea Fernandes)

• • • Overview of charge and committee members

• • • Proposal: conduct a new survey of faculty to update issues identified in the original survey from 2022

• • • Analysis of the survey results due in April 2027

• Unfinished Business

• • None

• New Business

• • Reason for having a Monday schedule on a Tuesday after a holiday

• • Clarification on when spring 2027 courses are posted in COIN

• • Update on LARTS renovation timetable

• • Inquiry about any leverage the Faculty Senate can provide for having the union contract available for the new PMYR process

• • Student issue with the printing credit system

• • • Proposed idea of a student print credit pooling system

• • • Motion made and seconded to allow students with a printing balance to be able to place their credits in a pool for other students to access

• • • • Passed via unanimous consent

• • • • Motion to be forwarded to the Provost’s Office

• Invited Guests

• • Provost’s Office (Ram Bala)

• • • Updates

• • • Enrollment update

• • • • Implications for budget planning

• • • Town hall scheduled for October 29th

• • • Resource advisory working group findings – moving into the next steps

• • • Schedule of fall open houses

• • • Working on providing talking points and highlights for programs and colleges

• • • Cybersecurity training update – currently 31% individuals completed

• • • Research office has 4 new staff members

• • • • Meet and greet scheduled for October 29th

• • • Federal accessibility compliance challenges

• • • • CITS will be supporting compliance

• • • • • New lead instructional designer started last week

• • • • • Tool to help remediate documents

• • • Career readiness

• • • • Implementation phase of the David Foundation Career Grant

• • • Fast Follower Co-Op Planning Grant

• • • • Grant from the Department of Higher Education

• • • • Planning on a health allied co-op program on campus

• • • National Institute for Student Success

• • • • Site visit

• • • • Moving to implementation phase on their recommendations

• • Admin Restructuring (Ram Bala & Deb Majewski)

• • • Background information re timeline and purpose

• • • • Budget shortfall caused by the decrease in graduate international student enrollment

• • • • Implementation of cost-saving measures

• • • • • VSIP participation included 18 admins – majority in Academic Affairs

• • • Looking at models that would provide opportunities for promotion but also be sustainable

• • • • UMass Amherst’s model

• • • • Proposed model: college-based instead of department-based

• • • • Implementation would not be earlier than January

• • • Discussion about the proposal

• Meeting adjourned at 4:50pm via unanimous consent