No quorum reached for a Council of the Whole, faculty concerns addressed at town hall meeting

It's often hard to ignore the classic signs of a bad relationship. One with little trust, no communication or cooperation, dissatisfaction and a lack of transparency doesn't exactly paint the picture of a long-lasting partnership.

One relationship suffering a few hiccups is between some DePaul faculty members and the university. These faculty members addressed possible resolutions to mend the relationship during a town hall meeting held November 4 at the Merle Reskin Theatre.

Faculty Council started to plan for a large faculty meeting after a petition of 61 signatures was presented in June. The petition called for Faculty Council to hold a Council of the Whole (CoW) meeting to discuss "the unresponsiveness of the administration to faculty concerns, including but not limited to those related to the tenure and promotion process, a lack of shared governance in key decisions impacting faculty, and faculty morale and campus climate."

In order for the CoW to take place, 240 full-time faculty members needed to be counted towards a quorum at the beginning of the meeting; 178 full-time faculty members attended the meeting so the forum switched to a town hall. The town hall allowed for an open discussion of submitted agenda items but no motions were introduced and no voting occurred.

Participants discussed concerns surrounding DePaul's principle of shared governance, the tenure and promotion process and diversity during the town hall, which lasted approximately 90 minutes.

According to the town hall's minutes distributed by Faculty Council earlier this month, some faculty members said that recent actions have undermined certain traditions and values at DePaul, like shared-governance, which implies a cooperative system between faculty, staff, students and the administration, a fair and equitable tenure and promotion process, and the inclusion diverse voices in decision-making.

The minutes cite that some felt the levels of trust between faculty and administration had eroded and advocated for a more representative system of faculty governance, greater consistency and transparency in the tenure promotion process. They also called for a decision-making process that recognizes diverse voices such as "women, people of color and other historically marginalized groups."

They also state some thought diverse and divergent voices were sometimes discouraged while voices that affirm the administration's viewpoint tend to be included at the highest levels of decision-making, and significant problems and areas of concern to faculty of color are not addressed or represented by existing structures.

Five resolutions outline proposed methods to counter these concerns: Commitment to Shared Governance, Shared Governance, Inclusion of Diverse Voices, Appeal Process after Tenure Denial, and Tenure and Promotion Equity.

An item in the "Inclusion of Diverse Voices" resolution called for the creation of a Vice President for Academic Diversity position to be filled by a tenured faculty member and be selected via a process involving the Provost in consultation with faculty. Another suggested that a Faculty Diversity Advisory Committee be appointed in consultation with faculty to interact with and advise the VP for Academic Diversity to address access and equity for faculty of color.

The "Tenure and Promotion Equity" resolution proposed that an external independent panel conduct a review of DePaul's Tenure and Promotion process at all levels—departmental, college, and the University Board of Promotion and Tenure and that an annual report be submitted on the status of women and faculty of color in their college, specifying the available support to insure their retention, tenure and promotion.

Now that these faculty members have placed all their cards on the table, what's the next step in fixing this relationship?

Faculty Council President Michaela Winchatz started talks on the council's role in moving forward after the town hall during December's Faculty Council meeting.

Some faculty expressed at the town hall that they do not feel represented by Faculty Council. Winchatz said she didn't want to ignore that and wanted to know why they feel Faculty Council is removed from their interests.

Winchatz said they should talk about what Faculty Council wants to achieve and how they can be a more proactive group.

One solution suggested that there should be more coordination and communication between council members and constituents from the individual colleges they represent.

Faculty Council plans to further discuss ways to resolve this issue.