The Senate Assembly on Monday elected three faculty members to seats on the Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs, the executive arm of the University of Michigan’s central faculty governance system.
Elected to three-year terms that begin May 1 were:
Elena Gallo
Annalisa Manera
• Sara Ahbel-Rappe, professor of Greek and Latin, LSA.
• Elena Gallo, associate professor of astronomy and associate chair of graduate studies, LSA.
• Annalisa Manera, professor of nuclear engineering and radiological sciences, College of Engineering.
Ahbel-Rappe, Gallo and Manera will succeed three members whose terms expire April 30: Michael Atzmon, professor of nuclear engineering and radiological sciences and of materials science and engineering, College of Engineering; Ruth Carlos, professor of radiology, Medical School; and William Schultz, professor of mechanical engineering, CoE.
The Senate Assembly chose the new SACUA members from among 10 candidates. The other candidates were:
• Ivo Dinov, professor of health behavior and biological sciences, School of Nursing; and professor of computational medicine and bioinformatics, Medical School.
• Kathryn A. Eaton, professor of microbiology and immunology, Medical School.
• Amir Ghaferi, associate professor of surgery, Medical School; associate professor of business, Stephen M. Ross School of Business; surgical director of University Hospital Operating Rooms; and director of the Michigan Bariatric Surgery Collaborative.
• Paul R. Kileny, professor of otolaryngology-head and neck surgery, and academic program director, Audiology and Electrophysiology, Medical School.
• Donald Likosky, associate professor of cardiac surgery, Medical School.
• Rishindra Reddy, José José Alvarez Research Professor of Thoracic Surgery, associate professor of surgery, Medical School; clerkship director, Surgery; assistant program director, Thoracic Surgery.
• Douglas O. Richstone, Lawrence H. Aller Collegiate Professor of Astronomy and professor of astronomy, LSA.
During the candidates’ remarks before the election, Ahbel-Rappe said faculty governance plays a key role in the university’s mission. As the sole candidate from the humanities, she said, community members are fortunate the humanities continue to flourish at U-M while other institutions have seen cuts to these fields.
“We know and we have to defend the idea that our values, our cultures, our civilization are not for sale,” she said. “Knowledge is not commensurate with or scalable to profit.”
Gallo was unable to attend the event because she was scheduled to speak at an American Astronomical Society meeting. A colleague read a statement prepared by Gallo in which she said the mission of higher education institutions depends upon academic freedom, and recent times have witnessed an increased level of skepticism and distrust in these institutions and the values they represent.
“As a SACUA member, I would work to ensure the universal principles of academic freedom are embedded in all matters of faculty governance while at the same time protecting and defending the notion of factual knowledge and its importance in the public decision-making process,” Gallo said.
Manera said in the past few years, faculty members had few chances to provide input and feedback on some university decisions and policies.
If elected, she said, she would work to make sure that faculty members have “strong input” in creating policies as well as push for academic excellence to remain a core value of the university.
The new SACUA members will join incumbents Joy Beatty, associate professor of management studies, College of Business, UM-Dearborn; Colleen Conway, professor of music education, School of Music, Theatre & Dance; Sarah Lippert, associate professor of art history, College of Arts and Sciences, UM-Flint; Sami Malek, professor of internal medicine, Medical School; Neil Marsh, professor of chemistry, LSA, and professor of biological chemistry, Medical School; and Deirdre Spencer, librarian, Library Research — Arts and Humanities, University Library.
Besides SACUA, central faculty governance consists of the Senate Assembly, 74 elected faculty members from the Ann Arbor, Dearborn and Flint campuses, and the Faculty Senate, made up of professorial faculty, librarians, full-time research faculty, executive officers and deans.
