The University Record, March 8, 1999
6 vie for 3 seats on SACUA
By Jane R. Elgass
Six candidates are vying for three seats on the Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs (SACUA). The election will be held at the March 15 Senate Assembly Meeting to fill seats currently held by William Ensminger, Carol Loveland-Cherry and Peter Ward.
Isaac Francis
“There are rapid changes occurring throughout the University in all schools on this campus and campuses throughout this country. We need to respond to these changes and challenges promptly to enable us to stay in the forefront of new technologies and innovations that will benefit us all. Only recently has there been a serious effort to make the University of Michigan as competitive as other peer institutions in many areas. As has been recently pointed out by the Life Sciences Commission, we lag behind our sister institutions in this field. In order to succeed and retain a position in the forefront of new and rapidly evolving technologies, we need a multidisciplinary approach. This is only a small part of what needs to be addressed and corrected throughout this great institution. Being affiliated with the Medical School, I am delighted with the findings of the Life Sciences Commission, as it has identified areas where we have strengths as well as our weaknesses. We now need to move on to discussions and get under way to start these major projects.
“This and other major undertakings need the integrated effort of multiple units throughout the University to ensure that we do not lag far behind our peer institutions. My involvement with SACUA will, I hope not only help me participate in and facilitate such new ventures and activities, but also ensure that all schools that need and should be involved will be included. My appointment to the Senate Assembly has enabled me to have a broader view and understanding of the needs and concerns of the various units at the University.”
Francis, professor of radiology, has been a Medical School faculty member since 1981. He has served on the Medical School Admissions Committee, and has been the director of the Research Imaging Core of the Comprehensive Cancer Center since 1989. He was elected to the membership of the Society of Body Computed Tomography and Magnetic Resonance in 1990. His current interests research include high-speed imaging of various neoplasms using computed tomography and MRI.
John Gobetti
“I believe strongly that faculty governance is a shared responsibility for both faculty and the administration. The administration has an obligation to support faculty governance in action and in deed. The faculty, for its part, must protect faculty governance as a basic right and duty of its own. This does not mean that faculty and administrations are set in adversarial roles against one another. Rather, they have equal voices as partners in formulating and implementing policy. The unique perspective that each provides must be combined together through cooperation and mutual guidance.
“I have shown my active commitment to this philosophy throughout my 30 years as a member of this faculty. In these years I have served in a large number of unit (School of Dentistry) and University committees, where I have contributed actively toward making faculty governance result in excellence in teaching and research. I have served on the Senate Assembly, the Committee on the Economic Status of the Faculty, on subcommittees for fringe benefits and retirement, and on the Financial Affairs Committee. I have chaired grievance review boards, and have been a member of numerous appointment, promotion and tenure committees.
“I see many challenges to the University and the faculty in the areas of state financial support, research funding and academic freedom; the autonomy of the University; tenure; faculty rights; and new technologies, such as distance learning.
“I would like to participate in the Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs and to work with the administration for the benefit of the faculty and the University overall. I believe that my experience and commitment make me uniquely qualified to do this.”
Gobetti has been a faculty member for over 30 years and has received more than 20 teaching awards at all levels—undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate. His clinical research and expertise focus on oral medicine. He will bring a broad range of experience and accumulated wisdom to SACUA.
Bruce Karnopp
“The University of Michigan enjoys an enviable reputation and traditions that extend over 180 years. The administration, the faculty, our students, our alumni, tThe state of Michigan, our nation and the world all have a vested interest in maintaining this reputation. The faculty and the administration must work hand-in-hand to see that we set a course for our University that will assure our reputation for the next century and beyond. The administration is charged with the responsibility for making the tough decisions involving our operation. The faculty are required to implement many of these decisions. As such, the faculty voice must play an important role in the decision process. SACUA provides a direct contact with the executive officers and the Regents of the University. As such, the faculty who serve on this committee must bring to those conversations experiences and insights that will aid in making good decisions.
“There are several issues that will be very important over the next several years. Perhaps most immediate is the challenge to our undergraduate admissions systems. While very little can be done while this issue is debated in our legal system, we must admit students year in and year out. We must find methods to admit students that meet our responsibilities to the state and nation and that meet the goals we set for the University. This is by no means an easy task. Finding admissions criteria that are legal and that are viewed as equitable by those who apply to the University will be exceedingly difficult. It is, however, a task that we must perform with the greatest care. In many ways, the reputation of the University rests squarely on the abilities of our graduates.
“A second issue that has been circulating in one form or another for many years concerns the role of the faculty. Over the past two decades we have promoted ourselves as a research university. On the other hand, the executive officers have been promoting the importance of the undergraduate experience at the University. This raises an important question regarding the balance of responsibilities of the faculty. Teaching, service, and research all take time and energy if they are to be done with care. Each faculty member has to juggle these three balls in the best way possible. Too often, one or two of these dominate the faculty member’s time and creative energy. We have to decide if the criteria for acceptable performance of faculty should be reviewed, and if it is in the interest of the University to apply the exact same criteria to all faculty at all stages of their careers. If too much emphasis is placed on research, we may have to resort to hiring non-tenure teachers to cover many of our courses. This step should be taken only after a thorough and careful review of the implications of such a move.”
Karnopp holds degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Brown University and the University of Wisconsin in philosophy and mathematics, applied mathematics and engineering mechanics. He taught at University of Toronto (1965-68) and Michigan (1968-present). He served as assistant dean in the College of Engineering (1983-89) and currently is associate professor of mechanical engineering. His awards are include the Thurnau Professorship, AMOCO Teaching Award, Excellence in Teaching (Engineering), Excellence in Service (Engineering), State of Michigan Distinguished Faculty Award, Pi Tau Sigma (Student Honor Society) Teacher of the Term (six times).
Karnopp taught has taught more than 10,000 students at the University and a summer course for incoming minority students for six years, and he worked on admissions strategies with Cliff Sjogren, Rick Shaw and Ted Spencer. In addition, he has been actively involved with the Cook Project in the Admissions Office for many years. He served on the Board in Control of Intercollegiate Athletics and he chaired the SACUA review of the vice president for student affairs. He has written 40 papers and is currently completing his second book.
Moji Navvab
“In the past two decades, new and diverse roles and services have been added to the University’s traditional missions through more specialized organizations and departments within each institution. To carry out these missions as they serve students and the public, the University uses resources located within the University’s physical facilities. These facilities are a major component of the fixed or capital assets of the institution.
Planning and efficient management of campus buildings are essential for the following reasons: 1) The amount and suitability of building space directly affect the scope and quality of educational services; 2) Appropriate management of facilities can reduce the consumption of scarce resources; 3) Decisions to construct or acquire new buildings represent major, long-term financial commitments and will affect program offerings for a significant period of time; 4) Buildings are highly visible components of this University, and; 5) Architectural design, construction quality, building standards and usage, campus accessibility, and maintenance all play a significant role in creating the environment in which education and scholarship are conducted.
“Maintenance and operation costs for the University’s buildings require a significant portion of our annual operating revenues. In fact, nearly $50 million is spent annually on energy bills alone even though there may be a variety of choices available to the University to help reduce some of these costs. Rapidly changing environmental conditions, combined with the development of new technologies, have created the need for a new energy planning process to be used in the management of institutional buildings. As a candidate for SACUA, I think it is important to identify at least some area where I can make a unique contribution over the next few years and affirm the values guiding our institutional mission. This should include reassessment of our building operation and maintenance resources, and an acknowledgment of our part in the larger community and in the many external challenges to higher education.
“I feel I can make a significant contribution to SACUA in two ways. First, to identify, compare and integrate the priorities and programs that exist within the facility planning, design and plant management of campus buildings, and to support strategies and policies to resolve excessive energy consumption. Second, to provide a benchmark that will enable SACUA to assess the potential widespread application of the strategies and policies proposed by the University with respect to future architecture and planning of the campus. A wide variety of planning efforts could contribute in the development of a budget planning process that will help to advance the University in the decades ahead with the aim of accomplishing these goals without unduly disturbing the flexibility that is critical to maintaining and improving our ability to be an innovative research university.”
Navvab, associate professor of architecture has been at the University since 1985. He is also the chair of the certificate program in simulation and gaming in the Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies. As both teacher and researcher, his specialties include lighting, acoustic and building performance, and facility management evaluation. He currently chairs various national and international technical committees in these areas.
In addition to serving the Senate Assembly and budget subcommittee to SACUA for the last two terms, Navvab has been working with plant and plant extension offices since October 1985. His current funded research is in the areas of scotopic vision in a virtual luminous environment, photovoltaic application in commercial buildings, acoustic and thermal comfort simulation for Hill Auditorium, lighting design for plant growth, and the development of performance indicators for facility planning and management.
Peter Ward
“With an increased national commitment to biological and biomedical sciences as represented by increasing congressional appropriations, the University can take advantage of these opportunities in a way that will greatly enhance research and teaching programs across the institution. The report by the Life Sciences Commission underscores how we can move forward in many important areas. Success will be measured in part by effective interactions between schools and between disciplinary areas at the levels of both teaching and research. Service in SACUA provides important contact with the president, the provost and other leaders of the University. Because of its broad composition, SACUA provides to these leaders a critical perspective that is often not otherwise available to them. Service in SACUA leads to important interactions between faculty representatives in a manner that allows members to understand different perspectives but also how relations between academic units in the University can be made more effective and productive. ”
Ward, the Godfrey D. Stobbe professor of Pathology and chair of the Department of Pathology, has been on the faculty since 1980. He served as interim dean of the Medical School in 1982-85. He has been heavily involved in Medical School committees (Executive Committee, Dean’s Council, Hughes Advisory Committee, Conflict of Interest Committee, Technology Transfer Committee and Cancer Center Advisory Board), and has taken part in interdisciplinary activities involving the Medical School and other University units, including LS&A. He received the University’s Distinguished Biomedical Scientist Award in 1989. He has served as president of the major pathology societies of North America, and has a distinguished research career in the area of inflammation. He has served on SACUA since the beginning of the current calendar year.
SeonAe Yeo
“The role of SACUA is to advise and consult with the president, provost and executive officers of the University on matters of University policy on behalf of the Assembly. In light of changes in the tenure system, student body composition and research funding sources, we are at a critical point to evaluate and restructure our future, in order to preserve and to enhance faculty governance. Vision and positive guidance are urgently needed to respond to the rapidly changing environment in the health care system and information technology. Instead of being in fear of losing the status quo, the University is, I believe, in an excellent position to articulate a framework in order to capture a stronger and more attractive future faculty body.
“More important, to fully integrate all faculty into shared governance, the lives and the careers of all of us, including women and minorities must be nurtured with special attention to tenure and promotion, competitive salaries, and support for balancing family responsibilities.
“As a candidate for SACUA, I believe that both the external and internal issues described above must be communicated, discussed and monitored.”
Yeo, associate professor of nursing, has been teaching at the School of Nursing since 1986. She served as a Senate Assembly member for three years. She also served on the Executive Committee for Children Center for Working Family. She received the Heart of Gold Award from United Way for her service to the Corner Adolescent Health Clinic. Her research involves pregnant women’s exercise and its effect on women’s health.
