On Friday, the Faculty Senate had its final meeting of the semester at the University Center Boardroom.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At the meeting, faculty members discussed the university budget, heard updates from Senate working groups and addressed campus climate concerns.<\/p>\n
Memorial resolutions<\/p>\n
The meeting began with a memorial resolution honoring former Lehigh biological sciences department chair and professor Murray Itzkowitz, presented by Kathy Iovine, current chair of the department of biological sciences.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Iovine said Itzkowitz joined Lehigh in 1979 and retired as professor emeritus in 2020. She highlighted his research on animal behavior, including courtship, parental behavior and aggression through his work with various fish species.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFor over four decades, he was a scholar, educator, mentor, colleague, friend and advocate,\u201d Iovine said. \u201cMurray\u2019s legacy includes the nine faculty he hired as chair, the 18 students he mentored towards their PhDs, his over 90 research publications and the countless acts of kindness, sarcasm, wit, advice and knowledge that are remembered by those who knew him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Following Iovine\u2019s remarks, attendees shared a moment of silence.<\/p>\n
Next, Kate Arrington, professor of psychology and department chair, presented a memorial resolution for George Shortess, who joined Lehigh in 1979 and retired in 1994 as a professor in the department of psychology.<\/p>\n
Arrington said Shortess died at 93 years old on Dec. 3.<\/p>\n
She discussed Shortess\u2019 research in neurophysiology, funded by the National Institute of Health. She also said Shortess combined his interest in science and art by publishing multiple journal articles exploring \u201cneural art\u201d and visual arts research.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Shortess) is remembered by colleagues as a devoted teacher and mentor who was always interested in improving the student experience,\u201d Arrington said. \u201cHe was generous in his time providing advice to junior faculty on the balancing of teaching and research.\u201d<\/p>\n
A moment of silence was also observed following Arrington\u2019s remarks.<\/p>\n
Lehigh\u2019s financial model and adjustments for next year<\/p>\n
Provost Nathan Urban gave a presentation on factors affecting Lehigh\u2019s academic budget and changes needed moving forward.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Urban began by discussing external factors affecting higher education, including inflation, research funding cuts and immigration issues impacting international student enrollment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He shared examples of universities across the U.S. laying off employees and shutting down research centers because of budget cuts, citing Duke University <\/a>shutting down three research centers, Yale University<\/a> reducing college staff by 7.5% and Stanford University<\/a> laying off more than 360 staff members.<\/p>\n Urban then outlined Lehigh\u2019s strengths and weaknesses in relation to its financial model.\u00a0<\/p>\n He also said Lehigh\u2019s relatively low debt, endowment per student in the taxable range and international student enrollment of 25% are all beneficial to the university\u2019s financial position.\u00a0<\/p>\n Although Lehigh\u2019s relatively low level of international student recruitment initially seemed like a weakness when he arrived about six years ago, Urban said current immigration challenges have made it an advantage.\u00a0<\/p>\n He also said Lehigh\u2019s limited number of research faculty fully supported by grants and its 27% admission rate currently have neither a positive nor negative financial impact.\u00a0<\/p>\n Among the university\u2019s biggest financial challenges, Urban cited Lehigh\u2019s dependence on undergraduate tuition and the high cost of maintaining campus.\u00a0<\/p>\n He said around 60% of Lehigh\u2019s budget comes from undergraduate tuition, while about 15% comes from investments, 9% from auxiliary enterprises, 8% from grants, 3% from gifts and 5% from other sources.<\/p>\n In his presentation, Urban showed that of the university\u2019s expenditures, 43% goes toward compensation and 25% toward financial aid.\u00a0<\/p>\n Despite Lehigh\u2019s tuition being $82,200 last academic year, he said the cost to educate each student is $100,516.<\/p>\n Urban said more than half of Lehigh students receive some form of financial aid, with the average tuition discount across all students sitting at about 40%, raising questions about how the university can maintain that model long term.<\/p>\n The university\u2019s endowment, he said, and other revenue sources help close that gap.<\/p>\n He also said Lehigh must reduce expenses while preserving its \u201ccore values and strategies activities.\u201d He said reputation and \u201cquality\u201d are key to Lehigh\u2019s long-term success.<\/p>\n \u201cUniversities, especially private universities, are in a reputational battle,\u201d Urban said. \u201cWe recruit students based on reputation. Our reputation drives our ability to get research funding. Our reputation drives our ability to bring in philanthropy. Our reputation drives our ability to hire the best faculty and staff. And so reputation and and the underlying core of reputation, which is what I\u2019m naming as quality here, is critical for our success.\u201d<\/p>\n Urban also said Lehigh needs to attract students who don\u2019t require financial aid and want to attend because of the university\u2019s academic reputation.\u00a0<\/p>\n He said enrolling more upper-income students who choose Lehigh for its academic reputation rather than large merit scholarships could reduce the university\u2019s discount rate and improve net revenue.<\/p>\n To strengthen that reputation, Urban said Lehigh should continue developing innovative academic programs, summer offerings and graduate certificate programs.\u00a0<\/p>\n Faculty Senate working groups<\/p>\n The Faculty Senate currently has two working groups \u2014 one focused on \u201ccodifying\u201d university subdivisions and another on revising faculty evaluation.<\/p>\n The first presentation was led by Anders Knospe, assistant professor in the department of physics.\u00a0<\/p>\n Knospe said the group has been consulting with deans of Lehigh\u2019s five colleges, the provost\u2019s office, the vice provost\u2019s office, general counsel and program directors to more clearly define academic programs and departments.<\/p>\n Creating those distinctions, Knospe said, would help clarify the process surrounding program closures, including the handling of scholarships, endowment funds and faculty placements.<\/p>\n Given funding cuts across universities, Jenna Lay, vice chair of the Faculty Senate, said having a clear process is especially important.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe see departments and programs being shut down across the country, and we want to make sure that we are very clear on what that looks like at Lehigh,\u201d Lay said. \u201cHopefully we won\u2019t face this, but if we face this here, we are doing it in a way that is not surprising, that is transparent to people, that people understand that this is how we approach this.\u201d<\/p>\n The second presentation was led by Haiyan Jia, associate professor of journalism and communication.\u00a0<\/p>\n Jia said Lehigh has relied heavily on student evaluation of teaching when assessing teaching excellence, despite concerns about their reliability.\u00a0<\/p>\n She said the group is exploring how teaching can be evaluated for review, promotion and tenure.<\/p>\n Jia shared a draft proposal that would assess faculty using four categories of teaching activities, six interrelated criteria for teaching effectiveness and multiple forms of evidence for teaching excellence.\u00a0<\/p>\n Campus climate discussion\u00a0<\/p>\n Recent acts of bias<\/a>, including a swastika found near campus and a racial bias incident<\/a> in March, prompted discussion among faculty members.\u00a0<\/p>\n Peter Ziegler, chair of Faculty Senate, opened the floor for conversation about the incidents.<\/p>\n Filippo Casati, assistant professor in the department of philosophy, said several of his Jewish students had reached out to him regarding the swastika incident.<\/p>\n He said he felt horrified when students approached him about the incident, and, after asking how he could help, was told they\u2019d brought ideas and concerns to multiple campus offices but felt ignored or saw no action taken afterward.<\/p>\n Based on his involvement in the Jewish community, Casati said he\u2019s observed students feeling unheard and frequently encountering offensive remarks on campus.<\/p>\n Iovine suggested holding a joint meeting with the Student Senate to continue conversations surrounding bias incidents.<\/p>\n Henry Odi, deputy vice president for equity and community and associate provost for academic diversity, said his office has been regularly meeting with small groups of students to discuss the incidents. Most recently, he said the office met with students from Lehigh Hillel and Chabad.<\/p>\n Odi said the office is actively gathering feedback and plans to focus on implementation over the summer.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe work is going to continue, and the message across campus is that we are interested in building partnerships with our students,\u201d Odi said. \u201cSo it\u2019s just not going to be a group or other administrators working on this. Students are going to be involved, and we also will explore the role that faculty and staff will play in this.\u201d<\/p>\n Faculty Senate elections<\/p>\n Lay will become chair of the Faculty Senate in August as Ziegler retires.<\/p>\n There are currently 10 open seats on the Faculty Senate, and Lay opened nominations for those positions.\u00a0<\/p>\n An electronic vote will be held during the week of May 18, Lay said.<\/p>\n The meeting adjourned at 2:59 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Friday, the Faculty Senate had its final meeting of the semester at the University Center Boardroom.\u00a0 At…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":183098,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[54417,4784,153,155,154,1197],"class_list":["post-183097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-7-min-read","tag-administration","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-feature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183097\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}