Faculty Senate

• A candidate must be a member of the faculty within the tenure structure or on a multi-year contract.
• Faculty members with tenure must have been a member of the faculty for at least one year before election. Other faculty members must have been on the faculty for at least two years before election.
• All emeritae/emeriti faculty members are eligible to run for the emeritae/emeriti seat on the Senate.
• Senate composition: Each Division of the School of Arts and Sciences elects two members, each professional school elects two, one member is elected by the emeritae/emeriti faculty from their ranks, one is elected by those faculty who cannot vote in faculty meetings, and five faculty members are elected at large.
• Also relevant: Faculty Senators must be current members of the faculty (CFRR, April 2022).

• All Senators and elected Faculty representatives to the Board serve for three-year terms, with one exception. The Senate representative for faculty emeritae/emeriti serves a one-year term.
• A Senator can serve at most six years consecutively.

• Statements generally identify the candidate’s background in terms of division/department and professional focus.
• Statements generally explain why the candidate is interested in serving and why the candidate is well qualified to do so.
• Some statements highlight a candidate’s priorities in the role.

I am a theorist of ––– in the Department of –––. I work on the topic of ––– , which is relevant to the faculty’s ongoing concern about –––. As such, I would be honored to have the chance to connect my academic interests to the shared governance we have here at Brandeis by being elected as an At-Large Representative to the Faculty Senate. I am especially eager to help continue optimizing voting and meeting procedures for our new reality—larger meetings with a heavy virtual presence—and to provide a voice for all faculty on issues such as the upcoming evaluation of our graduate programs, streamlining the faculty review report, strengthening and diversifying our educational programs, and the renewed focus on articulating Brandeis founding values. In all of this, I hope to build on my previous university-wide service experience, which includes being a member of the ––– Committee and the ––– Committee

Heller has been an innovator in expanding the voice of research scientists and thus making the faculty senate a more inclusive voice in university governance. I helped to make early progress in this area when I …., and I would be honored to continue this work. I would also support efforts to give students and staff their own voice in university governance given they are key stakeholders. I would share Heller’s innovative DEI efforts and the need to deepen our commitment. And I would support continued efforts to build high quality relationships across the schools and divisions of Brandeis, and with the various administrative functions that are essential for our success. Most of all, I would seek to represent the Heller voice to the Brandeis community, and support Brandeis to live out its values both internally and externally – to be the change we wish to see in the world.

Experience. For 30 years I’ve been an Adjunct Professor of –––. Concurrently I have held full-time positions as an ––– professional at important Boston institutions including –––, –––, and –––. In my teaching I try to bridge the gap between practice and theory. Accordingly, I view myself as a hybrid academic-practitioner. I have received multiple awards for teaching excellence.

Qualifications. Beyond my professional experience, I helped found Brandeis’s part-time faculty union and have since worked as a steward representing union members at Brandeis and other schools. While adjuncts are a growing proportion of the faculty at Brandeis and elsewhere, their views and interests often go overlooked and underrepresented. To address that problem, I’ve worked with others in both the union and the Administration to fashion practical policy changes that improve adjuncts’ circumstances. The open position that I was nominated for represents the non-voting faculty, most but not all of whom are members of this union. If elected, I would try to understand the concerns of all non-voting faculty and then work with my fellow Senators and others to effect practical changes in policy.