Two candidates have entered their names to be considered for Faculty Senate’s chairperson.
Senate members will choose between Kenneth Hicks, a physics professor, and Beth Quitslund, current Faculty Senate secretary, at the organization’s next meeting on April 14.
Faculty Senate is an elected representative body that represents Ohio University faculty, according to its website.
“They come from two departments that have always been very much in the shared governance aspect,” said Howard Dewald, associate provost for faculty and academic planning. “They both have exposure in that way.”
The two candidates have collectively about 13 years of experience with Faculty Senate.
Hicks currently sits on senate’s Professional Relations Committee and has served on several other senate councils.
Hicks plans to communicate and receive responses from faculty about the new budget model by holding additional discussions about the topic.
“It’s important that we have good shared governance between the administration and the faculty,” Hicks said. “Faculty Senate is one of our premier ways of facilitating that discussion.”
Quitslund has been senate secretary since 2011 and sits on the General Education Task Force, in addition to being the undergraduate director for the department of English.
“I think that (current chairperson) Elizabeth (Sayrs) has done an absolutely fantastic job of helping the senate leadership to have a really good relationship both with the university administration and the Board of Trustees, while effectively representing faculty interests,” Quitslund said. “I’d like to be able to continue that.”
Some of Quitslund’s goals include assisting faculty under the new compensation plan and health care changes, while improving relationships with faculty on the Athens campus’ to those on the regional campuses.
Responsibilities for the Faculty Senate chairperson include composing and sending out an agenda for the meetings, facilitating the work of standing senate committees and representing the body on the Budget Planning Council, an organization that works with other administrative offices to make suggestions for OU’s budget.
David Thomas, a professor of film, is running for senate vice president and Katherine Hartman, an associate professor of marketing, is running for secretary.
“I think that I’ve been constantly surprised at how generous faculty are with their time in serving the university,” said Sayrs, a professor of fine arts and current senate chairwoman. “I think that I’ve also been surprised by the broad array of issues that Faculty Senate gets involved in.”
db794812@ohiou.edu
@dinaivey
