UNIVERSITY PARK – At its final meeting of the Spring 2023 semester, the Penn State Faculty Senate passed advisory reports recommending increased support from the University for Indigenous communities, as well as on implementing changes to the student feedback portion of the new Faculty Teaching Assessment Framework. The senate also heard updates from the University president and provost.
Updates from University leadership
President Neeli Bendapudi shared an update with the senate on the administration’s efforts to increase diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) across the University. In a live-streamed conversation April 20, the president along with Special Adviser for Institutional Equity Jennifer Hamer discussed the recent process to inventory and evaluate DEIB efforts University wide.
Bendapudi thanked faculty for their contributions and work on the more than 700 initiatives and 1,000 publications relating to DEIB scholarship identified in the report. That inventory, combined with the DEIB dashboard, will help inform the next steps Penn State will take toward the metrics-driven strategy defined by Bendapudi.
“I truly believe to my core that diversity is our strength, equity is our calling, and getting to inclusion and belonging is our mission,” Bendapudi said. “We are doing this because we are committed and aligned on investing in these areas because it's the right thing to do for us, for the students, for employees and for society at large.”
Bendapudi also shared her experiences attending the American Council of Education Conference in Washington, D.C., and indicated she is finishing up her visits to academic colleges across the University.
While addressing the new budget allocation model, Bendapudi said she is “very confident” that the University will hit its goal of achieving a stable budget by summer 2025. The administration hopes to implement a two-year budget (2024-2025) at the Board of Trustees meeting on July 20-21.
“(With a two-year budget in place) we would know our budget a full year in advance, what tuition we need to charge and be in a much better position,” Bendapudi said.
She also added that the current budget challenges are being addressed, but could impact about 50 employees across all of Penn State’s campuses. The president indicated that in recent discussions with colleges that employees who are impacted will have the opportunity to work with their unit leaders and HR to explore other current University openings for which they may be considered.
As units work to balance their budgets, they also are considering delaying program launches, deferring purchases or improvements, eliminating programs, measuring attrition and unfilled positions, restructuring, as well as considering new ventures to increase revenues.
Penn State Interim Executive Vice President and Provost Justin Schwartz addressed the senate for the first time since it was announced that he will permanently fill his position effective May 1. Schwartz was selected following a national search. He congratulated students set to graduate in the coming weeks for their resiliency in navigating the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the faculty who helped them through their hard work and commitment.
He detailed two DEIB initiatives that will be led out of the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost: a more holistic focus on student success; and hiring, retaining and advancing more diverse faculty. Schwartz then asked faculty for their input on potential barriers to success in those areas.
“We are really going to be looking for everyone's ideas, for new things to try and new approaches, because what we really want here is long-term sustainable success,” Schwartz said.
Indigenous communities
The senate passed an advisory report (122-2) recommending measures the University can take to reconcile with the history of the land that Pennsylvania received under the Morrill Land-Grant Act of 1862. The Morrill Act made it possible for each state to establish public institutions of higher education funded by the development or sale of associated federal land grants. Pennsylvania was granted the value of more than 775,000 acres of federally acquired land and sold those land scrips to raise funds for the founding of Penn State, according to the report.
Introduced by the Senate Committee on Educational Equity and Campus Environment, the report shares key findings regarding the nature of Penn State’s land-grant, particularly as they relate to Indigenous lands and communities, and advises the University on its responsibilities as one of the nation's leading land-grant universities.
According to the report, Penn State’s existence benefits from the dispossession of Indigenous people by the federal government both from the land its physical properties reside upon, as well as from the 776,514 acres from 5,327 parcels of Indigenous land granted the Commonwealth to fund the University’s original endowment. Faculty members created a public database that shows each parcel, where it came from, from which tribal nation, how the federal government obtained the land, how much money was paid for the land and the eventual amount of endowment raised from each parcel. Much of the land was expropriated by the federal government with little or no compensation, according to the database.
The report also takes a look at Penn State’s initiatives to support Indigenous communities, including its Acknowledgment of Land, which was released July 19, 2021, as part of a joint effort between the Indigenous Peoples Student Association (IPSA), the Indigenous Faculty and Staff Alliance (IFSA) and the Office of Educational Equity. Discussion of the report covered the underrepresentation of Indigenous people in Penn State’s student, faculty and staff populations, as well as ongoing repatriation efforts for ancestral remains held by the University.
Out of Penn State’s population of 73,159 undergraduate students, 95 (0.13%) self-identify as American Indian or Alaska Native, while 13 graduate students out of a population of 13,449 (0.1%) identify as such, and no law or medical students fall within those populations. Among faculty, 0.36% of tenure-line and 0.3% of nontenure-line identify as American Indian or Alaska Native, and .24% of staff self-identify as such.
Douglas Bird, associate professor of anthropology and chair of the committee, gave an update on the efforts out of Penn State’s Matson Museum of Anthropology to return ancestorial remains to their respective tribes, as required under the federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) of 1990. Penn State is and has been in compliance with the NAGPRA and maintains a research and teaching moratorium on the remains still undergoing repatriation.
The report recommended the formation of a special joint task force among IPSA, IFSA and the Office of Educational Equity to implement a truth and reconciliation process regarding Penn State’s original endowment under the Morrill Act. Other recommendations included increased recruitment and support of Indigenous students and faculty, support for an Indigenous liaison at the senior level of administration, and promotion and use of the Acknowledgement of Land and Morrill Act data to fulfill Penn State’s land-grant mission.
“These repatriation efforts, as well as any work developing the land acknowledgement, can’t be done without empowering the current students here and bringing more students to campus to continue building relationships with these tribes and to help make decisions related to continuing this work,” said Tim Benally, graduate student and co-presenter of the report.
The recommendations will be sent to Bendapudi and the administration for consideration.
New faculty assessment framework
The senate voted to recommend the implementation of changes to the student feedback portion of the faculty teaching assessment. These changes are part of the new Faculty Teaching Assessment Framework report, which was passed in September 2021 to replace the existing Student Ratings of Teacher Effectiveness (SRTEs) by creating a more holistic framework for assessing faculty effectiveness. The framework incorporates multiple data points, including student feedback, self-reflection from faculty members and feedback from peers to reduce the potential for bias.
As part of this report, the joint implementation task force examined whether student feedback should remain a part of the assessment framework. Despite the potential for bias, the task force determined that the student perspective is a critical piece of the teaching assessment. Notable recommended changes include the solicitation of student feedback both mid-semester and at the end of the semester, the reduction of open-ended questions and providing course development information rather than focusing on the qualities of the faculty.
Informational reports on how the peer-review and self-reflection portions of the framework will be implemented were also presented for discussion. Most recommendations were implementable as written.
The recommendations for implementation of the new student feedback mechanism will go into effect upon approval by Bendapudi.
Other business:
The senate voted, 111-20, to send proposed changes to its student policy on auditing and visiting classes back to the Senate Committee on Admissions, Records, Scheduling and Student Aid to be reworked and reintroduced at the next meeting. The proposed changes in the legislative report were intended to ensure faculty members are in compliance with federal background check requirements. Concerns were raised about the need for more specific language around exactly which visitors the policy applies to and how they are accounted for. The next meeting of the Faculty Senate will be held on Tuesday, July 11.
The Senate also:
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Welcomed new senators and officers who are beginning new terms and said goodbye to and thanked those whose terms of service were ending.
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Congratulated six graduating student recipients of the John W. White Graduate Fellowship.
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Passed an advisory report recommending revisions to Penn State’s policy for the facilitation of promotion to professor and tenure procedure. These revisions would require the inclusion of more detailed information about the process by which faculty can apply for full professorship. Additionally, the report seeks more data collection on the timing of faculty promotions at Commonwealth Campuses and University Park. Recommendations will be sent to University administration.
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Passed structural changes, including dissolving the Joint Committee on Insurance and Benefits and incorporating those duties into the other two committees overseeing insurance and benefits for Penn State employees, and formalizing an Officers and Chairs Committee.
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Heard reports on the University’s efforts to provide support for the behavioral health of students through the Office of Student Affairs Counseling and Psychological Services, and an analysis of faculty salaries and accompanying dashboards.