There was some confusion as to the direction that the Faculty Senate should take given the new definition and the request that they initiate the process to change the Faculty Senate Constitution to reflect the new one. The current version of the Faculty Senate Constitution defines Faculty as including persons having the title of professor, associate professor, assistant professor, research professor, research associate professor, research assistant professor, librarian, archivist, or assistant archivist, or anybody who has retired from any of these positions.

According to Mike Fortun, associate professor of Science and Technology Studies and secretary of the Senate, there are two incoherencies in the message that led to this confusion. “Why does the president and the Board ask the faculty to change the constitution, while at the same time saying that they will now recognize only a smaller set of the faculty, regardless of what the constitution says?” Fortun asked, “And, how can the faculty conduct such a vote, which would have to be done according to the current constitution with its more inclusive definition of faculty when they have already told us they will not recognize such a vote?”

For some faculty members, it was unclear as to how the new definition affected their position. Paul Hohenberg, professor emeritus of the Department of Economics, expressed how he felt his status was not clear when he returned from the winter break. He also noted that the entire faculty of the Rensselaer at Hartford Campus is clinical faculty, meaning that the new definition excludes them from recognition by the Board of Trustees in official communication from the Faculty Senate.

According to Charles Carletta, secretary and general counsel, “The only thing that has happened to the faculty government structure is that on those occasions where [they] choose officially to send an issue to the Board of Trustees for resolution, the Board will only focus on the views of tenured and tenure track faculty.” He felt that the new definition does not change anything that goes on in normal day-to-day activities nor the view of the professions of the faculty.

The Faculty Senate voted 11–6, with one abstention, to decline making the changes requested by the president. In addition, there was a vote to put this issue on the next General Faculty Meeting’s ballot in the spring, which also passed. The next General Faculty Meeting will be on April 4. Achille Messac, chair of the faculty, met with President Shirley Ann Jackson and Acting Provost Robert Palazzo this past Friday to further discuss the issue. During that meeting, he explained the uneasiness of the faculty in the way the decision came down. Messac expressed that the meeting gave a clear sense that clinical faculty, research faculty, librarians, and archivists can continue to be in faculty government in a largely unchanged way and was looking to “move beyond the expression of disappointment to address the wishes of the Board in a substantive way.”

In regards to the recent actions by the Board, Palazzo sees the new definition as a message to strengthen communications with active tenure and tenure-track faculty and to further engage them in the stewardship of the Institute. When speaking about the involvement of the rest of the faculty, Palazzo stated, “I think they have to [stay involved]. They are extremely important components that contribute to the vibrancy of the university through both its education and research mission.”

Kenneth Connor, chair of the Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering Department, expressed his disappointment with the direction that the discourse between the Faculty Senate and the administration has taken, but recognized that there is a difference between tenured and non-tenured faculty positions. Despite the difference, he said, “It is better off to hear from all of the people engaged in and part of education issues, as they interact with students in different ways.” At a minimum, he hoped the Faculty Senate will keep everyone as engaged as possible.