Faculty Senate members elected a representative for the Intercollegiate Athletics Committee at yesterday’s meeting.

Sen. Sylvan B. Green, director of the Biometry Shared Service of the Arizona Cancer Center, was elected by default for membership in the Intercollegiate Athletics Committee.

The purpose of Green’s membership is to be informed in all matters affecting athletics, meet with the director of athletics and advise President Robert Shelton “”in all areas affecting the university’s institutional obligation for compliance with the athletics policies of the Arizona Board of Regents and the National and Conference Athletic Associations, of which the university is a member,”” according to Faculty Senate reports.

Sen. John Ulreich, a professor of English, was also elected by default for membership on the Shared Governance Review Committee. Shared governance is the sharing of responsibility by faculty, administration, staff, appointed personnel and students when it comes to decisions about institutional missions, policies and budget priorities.

The SGRC will provide a method of assessing progress on shared governance on all levels of the university. Specifically, the committee will examine ways that breaches can be addressed and consider possible extension of the shared governance agreement. At the meeting, Juan Garcia, vice provost of academic affairs, and Larry Aleamoni, a professor of educational psychology and chair of academic personnel policy committee for the senate, hosted a discussion about promotion and tenure statistics.

Garcia said the UA lacks the ability to keep faculty at the level of promotion and tenure.

“”There is a high percentage of successful tenure because we hire well,”” Garcia said. “”We have trouble keeping faculty around for long enough.””

The UA is committed to maintaining an environment that supports those who find difficulty when forced to use gender-specific restrooms, said Jeanne Kleespie, assistant vice president for equal opportunity and affirmative action, at yesterday’s meeting.

The UA is continuing to promote the fact that members of the community with gender-identity issues, as well as children and the disabled with caretakers of a different sex, are allowed to use the bathroom of their choice.

“”You have this balancing act on whether you want to post on bathroom doors that it is a transgender restroom,”” Kleespie said. “”Arizona is not the most liberal state.””

The UA is the only Pac-10 university to have the bathroom policy.

In his address to the Faculty Senate, Shelton said there was an 31 percent increase in minorities at the UA.

The UA admitted its largest freshman class in history, 6,009 students, Shelton said.

Shelton also said the UA is composed of 36 percent Arizona residents.

However, freshman SAT scores are on the decline at the UA and around the country.