The University Senate held its final meeting Wednesday to welcome new senators and thank those who served this year.
Paul van Donkelaar, an associate professor of human physiology, will serve as senate president during the 2008-09 year, and Gwen Steigelman, assistant vice provost for academic affairs, will continue as secretary.
The senate also voted unanimously to appoint mathematics professor Peter Gilkey as senate vice president.
Next year will be the first year classified staff will have full voting membership in the University Senate; the addition will add three members.
Next year’s senate currently has a record number of vacant positions that no faculty member ran for.
Van Donkelaar said that he will work over the summer to make sure all the positions are filled.
“There is either a real or a perceived lack of trust in faculty government,” van Donkelaar said. He added that to re-establish the faculty’s trust he hopes to limit the number of issues discussed at meetings so they could be explored in more depth.
James Reinmuth, senior leadership gifts officer at the Charles H. Lundquist College of Business, was awarded the Wayne Westling Award for University Service and Leadership. Reinmuth joined the faculty in 1967 and spent 18 years as dean of the business school.
University President Dave Frohnmayer brought up a number of issues that the senate will be discussing during the next year, including the search and later hiring of a new University president who will succeed him. Once the new University president is hired, he or she will revisit the structure and position of the University Senate.
Current Senate President Gordon Sayre spoke a few words of reflection about the past year, focusing especially on the relationship between the University’s athletic and academic departments, warning that there could be consequences to having too great a focus put on athletics at the expense of academics.
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