The Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs has elected Tom Braun of the School of Public Health as chair and Damani Partridge of LSA as vice chair for the upcoming school year.
SACUA members elected Braun, professor of biostatistics, and Partridge, professor of anthropology and of Afroamerican and African studies, on April 10.
Their terms leading the nine-member executive arm of the University of Michigan’s central faculty governance system begin May 1.
Currently vice chair, Braun was unopposed in his bid to succeed current SACUA Chair Allen Liu, associate professor of mechanical engineering in the College of Engineering, associate professor of biomedical engineering in CoE and the Medical School, and associate professor of biophysics in LSA. Silvia Pedraza, professor of sociology and American culture in LSA, also ran for 2023-24 vice chair.
Braun said he is thrilled to have the opportunity to lead U-M’s faculty in pursuing key issues including faculty retention, child and family care, and shared governance.
“We certainly might disagree with how to make progress and change, but I am hopeful that a new administration brings us with new optimism and a growing mutual respect between the university’s faculty and the administration on all three campuses,” Braun said.
Partridge said that as vice chair he will work to protect vulnerable, marginalized faculty members and work to make the university feel more welcoming for all communities.
“It will be important to move beyond surveys to figure out systematic ways to improve the climate. I think that this is also tied to faculty governance and continuing to make the Faculty Senate, the Senate Assembly and SACUA even more effective in our administration collaboration,” Partridge said.
Braun and Partridge also will serve as chair and vice chair, respectively, of the Senate Assembly, 74 elected faculty members from the Ann Arbor, Dearborn and Flint campuses, and the full Faculty Senate, which consists of all tenure track professorial faculty, research faculty, librarians, executive officers and deans of each school or college.
