In their first meeting of the fall semester, the Faculty Senate heard updates from President Ann Weaver Hart about several administrative positions and considered a policy that would extend UAMC’s recent smoking ban to the AHSC.
Hart gave updates on her process to fill three administrative positions, including the position of provost, which is temporarily being held by Andrew Comrie; a senior vice president for health sciences; and a director for the UA Cancer Center.
Hart stressed the importance of maintaining transparency when filling the positions, especially of provost and chief academic officer.
“The faculty are … the intellectual and working capital of the university,” Hart said. “They have the expertise and their combined expertise and experience is a huge resource of input to help us envision our future.”
Hart added that her team plans to move quickly with the vetting and hiring process with the hopes to have access to the very best candidates for the positions, as other institutions are in the process of filling similar spots of their own.
After opening the floor for comments, Senator Barry Ganapol, an aerospace and mechanical engineering professor, expressed concern for the university’s relationship with the surrounding neighborhood, citing the growing number of student-housing complexes and recent problems with residents at the District on 5th.
Hart responded by saying that students should oust the mentality that they’re simply renting a place to live while they’re in college, and realize that Tucson is their home. Doing so, she said, would improve the relationship between students and their neighbors.
“You don’t live in Yuma anymore, you don’t live in Flagstaff, you don’t live in Phoenix,” Hart said. “You live in Tucson, and this is your home and the people with whom you live are your neighbors.”
The senate then addressed a policy proposed by Cathy Nicholson, the Arizona Health Sciences Center’s human resources director.
While the University of Arizona Medical Center imposed a ban earlier this year on smoking anywhere on the property effective on Jan. 1, smoking is still prominent around the AHSC building, Nicholson said, adding that cigarette smoke still finds its way into several offices, and that smoking on the center’s property contradicts the center’s mission to promote and teach health.
“Our hope is that this will curtail that kind of behavior and improve the quality of work-life for the people that work on the Arizona Health Sciences Center Campus,” Nicholson told the senate.
After senators passed a number of amendments to the policy, the senate ultimately tabled the proposal after it was unable to resolve a debate regarding some of the policy’s minor details. Further discussion of the proposal is on the senate’s agenda for the October meeting.
