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June 20, 1996

University Senate elects officers

Keith A. McDuffie of the Department of Hispanic Languages and Literatures has been re-elected president of the University Senate for the 1996-97 academic year.

The election was conducted last month. Results were announced at the June 10 Senate Council meeting.

Re-elected as Senate vice president for 1996-97 was Nathan Hershey of the Graduate School of Public Health.

Elected secretary was Debora Rougeux of the University Library System. Rougeux has been serving as secretary since October, when Margaret R. Rechter, a faculty member from Pitt's Greensburg campus, resigned the position and Rougeux was appointed to it by the University Senate.

In addition to University Senate officers, winners of this year's election for Faculty Assembly also were announced at the Senate Council meeting.

Under Senate bylaws, faculty are elected to three-year terms on the Assembly. After the first year, elected faculty automatically become members of both Faculty Assembly, made up exclusively of faculty, and Senate Council, which includes representatives of faculty, staff, students and administrators.

Those elected to Faculty Assembly for the 1996-1999 term are:

Faculty of Arts and Sciences

Mary S. Lewis, music; Philip K. Wion, English; James G. Holland, psychology; Jack Ochs, economics, and Leonard Plotnicov, anthropology.

Professional schools

Rafael Engel and Christina E. Newhill, School of Social Work, and Ellen G. Detlefsen and Douglas P. Metzler, School Information Sciences.

Ann L. Ronchetti, University Library System, was elected as at-large representative for the professional schools.

Health Sciences schools

Elected as at-large representatives for the schools of the Health Sciences were Michael J. Becich, School of Medicine; Balwant N. Dixit, School of Pharmacy; Ann M. Mitchell, School of Nursing, and Edward S. Redgate, School of Medicine.

In other business:

* Senate Council approved a motion urging Pitt's Board of Trustees to continue representation by faculty, staff and students on Board of Trustees' committees.

Senate Council approved the resolution in hopes of influencing an expected move by the Board of Trustees to remove faculty, staff and students from its committees during the Board's June 20 annual meeting.

Removal of faculty, staff and students was one of the changes recommended in the report of the consulting group headed by James Fisher and hired by the trustees last year to review University operations.

McDuffie called the possible action "a step backward" in the relationship of faculty, staff and students with the Board of Trustees. He maintained that the move would result in a loss of input to the Board of Trustees from those constituencies.

McDuffie said he has discussed the issue with trustees' chairperson J. Wray Connolly, who said he hoped another mechanism could be found to take the place of membership by faculty, staff and students on Board of Trustees' committees.

"As far as I can determine," McDuffie said, "there is only one reason for even changing the constitution of these committees and that is the apparent discomfort of some trustees in speaking freely at committee meetings with those constituencies [faculty, staff and students] represented."

McDuffie said he will call Connolly and request that he table action on the expected change until it is better known how various members of the board feel about it.

"I think that the negative will far out weigh any positive benefits that there might be from such a move," McDuffie added.

* Senate Council approved minor word changes to the University's policy on conflict of interest in research and teaching. The policy is available for review on PittInfo.

* Provost James Maher reported that the searches for deans for the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs and the Katz Graduate School of Business are in their final stages.

"Recommendations on the final candidates for both deanships have been made to me and my announcements will be forthcoming soon," Maher said.

–Mike Sajna


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