The Senate Assembly on Monday elected Robert M. Ortega, associate professor of social work, to fill the final open position on the executive committee of University of Michigan’s central faculty governance system.
Ortega was elected to the Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs in a runoff election with Neil Marsh, professor of chemistry and biological chemistry. The two had tied for the seat when the assembly elected other SACUA members in March.
Ortega will serve the remaining two years of a three-year term that became vacant when a former SACUA member left the university in January. The term runs through April 30, 2018.
In March, the Senate Assembly elected William Schultz, professor of mechanical engineering and applied mechanics, and naval architecture; Michael Atzmon, professor of nuclear engineering and radiological sciences, and materials science and engineering; and Dr. Ruth C. Carlos, professor of radiology, to three-year terms that begin May 1 and run through April 30, 2019.
SACUA is the nine-member executive arm of U-M’s Faculty Senate and Senate Assembly. The Senate consists of all professorial faculty, librarians, full-time research faculty, executive officers and deans. The Senate Assembly consists of 74 elected faculty members from the Ann Arbor, Dearborn and Flint campuses.
In other action Monday, the Senate Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution asking the university to institute an appeals policy for faculty who are complainants or respondents in cases investigated by the Office for Institutional Equity.
more information
Currently, faculty members may appeal any sanctions that are imposed as a consequence of findings by OIE, but there is no process for appealing the actual findings themselves.
Faculty members say they want a formal appeals process so participants in OIE cases can, if necessary, challenge findings that they believe to be based on incorrect facts or unfair procedures.
SACUA brought the resolution to the Senate Assembly after the university recently announced changes to the Student Sexual Misconduct Policy, which allows students to appeal findings by OIE.
“We feel the due process protections for faculty should be equal to the due process protections for students,” said Silke-Maria Weineck, chair of SACUA and the Senate Assembly.
