The University of Michigan’s central faculty governance system is starting the new year with a few personnel changes.
Allen Liu, associate professor of mechanical engineering in the College of Engineering, of biomedical engineering in CoE and the Medical School, and of biophysics in LSA, became chair of the Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs on Jan. 1. His term as chair and on SACUA will expire April 30.
Tom Braun, professor of biostatistics in the School of Public Health, begins this month as the SACUA vice chair, filling out the one-year term as vice chair after Kanakadurga Singer, Valerie Castle Opipari M.D. Professor of Pediatrics and associate professor of pediatrics and of molecular and integrative physiology in the Medical School, stepped down. His term as vice chair ends April 30, and his term on SACUA ends April 30, 2025.
The new year also sees Damani Partridge, associate professor of anthropology and Afroamerican and African studies in LSA, returning as a SACUA member after taking a one-year leave during 2022. His term on SACUA ends April 30, 2024.
The Senate Assembly will vote this week to fill two vacancies that occurred when Singer and Michael Atzmon, professor emeritus of nuclear engineering and radiological sciences, stepped down before the end of their terms.
The four faculty members running to fill the two positions through April 30, 2024, are:
- Lindsay Admon, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology, Medical School.
- Andre Monteiro Da Rocha, research assistant professor in the Department of Internal Medicine, Medical School.
- Silvia Pedraza, professor of sociology and American culture, LSA.
- Alex Yasha Yi, professor of electrical and computer engineering, College of Engineering and Computer Science, UM-Dearborn.
The Senate Assembly, which consists of 74 elected faculty members from the Ann Arbor, Dearborn and Flint campuses, will vote for the new SACUA members via virtual ballot through noon Jan. 13.
SACUA is the nine-member executive arm of U-M’s central faculty governance system, which also includes the Senate Assembly and the full Faculty Senate. The Faculty Senate consists of all tenure track professorial faculty, research faculty, librarians, executive officers and deans of each school or college.
