Faculty Senate will welcome a new member, staff their committees, and host guest speakers and talk about the Departmental Application of Criteria at their meeting on Tuesday.

James Ochwa-Echel, a secondary education professor, is the new member of faculty senate who will be replacing the one who resigned.

He has previously served on faculty senate.

Jemmie Robertson, faculty senate chair, said they were pleased to have Ochwa-Echel back.

The staffing for the faculty senate committees will be finalized at this meeting as well.

“I put the email that we needed people immediately after the meeting and I received emails and communications from virtually everyone in the Senate with their requests for the committees that they’d like to be on,” Robertson said. “I call it self-appointment, so rather than me appointing them to a committee I wanted to let them have the opportunity to choose where they felt like they would be the most valuable.”

The first communication to discuss is a letter from the University Personnel Committee that was sent regarding the dean of the college of science W. Harold Ornes, which included information on non-departmental application of criteria materials.

“That is the collective bargaining agreement,” Robertson said. “That is the means by which we are evaluated with; there are pretty clear instructions on what we need to do and the items we need to include and when faculty members submit their annual retention portfolios we are evaluated based on the materials and how they relate to each department’s DAC.”

The person who authored the letter, which was about certain practices he had implemented in evaluating faculties’ portfolios, would also be at the meeting and Robertson anticipates Dean Ornes being present as well.

Provost Blair Lord and University Professionals of Illinois president, Jon Blitz will be guest-speakers at the meeting.

Lord regularly attends the meetings, however he does not address the senate every week.

Blitz will speak about senate and UPI collaboration.

An email asking for more clarity in the student fee breakdowns, the appointment of a replacement CAA member, and the Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics. Faculty Senate identified who that will be and Robertson sent them an email asking if they are interested in serving.

The Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics wrote faculty senate a letter in April and Robertson drafted a resolution agreeing with it.

“I’ll see if the senate members agree with it tomorrow,” Robertson said.

An email sent about Commitment to Excellence Scholarships will also be revisited at the meeting.

The faculty senate was requested to send a mass email about the scholarships.

“A faculty member is asking other faculty members to donate to a scholarship fund, and my personal opinion is that the timing isn’t right,” Robertson said.

Cassie Buchman can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected]