The University of Michigan Senate Assembly met for the first time this semester in the Alexander G. Ruthven Building Monday afternoon. The assembly welcomed new members and addressed a variety of faculty concerns including the recent internet outage.
The meeting began by introducing various committees that faculty members can join as a part of the Senate Assembly. Luke McCarthy, director of the Faculty Senate Office, said the assembly was struggling to find volunteers for the committees, especially over the summer. Now that they are back on campus, McCarthy encouraged faculty members to explore the different committees and join one that aligns with their interests.
“During the summer, the second chair in the Faculty Senate Office has reached out to quite a number of people to try to get people on committees and it’s a lot of work with a lot of people saying ‘no,’ ” McCarthy said. “We would love to have some interested people join the committees.”
The assembly moved on to discuss how faculty should ensure that student accommodation requests — such as changes to assignment deadlines and test taking and accessibility issues — are met in a way that does not create a lot of additional work for faculty members. Senate Assembly chair Tom Braun pointed out that staying on top of all of these requests can be stressful for faculty members at times.
“We’re hearing from a lot of faculty that although we are more than willing to help students with their accommodations, it is becoming more and more work,” Braun said.
History professor Derek Peterson also acknowledged faculty burnout, before transitioning the conversation to a discussion of artificial intelligence ethics at the University. Peterson said an assembly committee might be able to provide guidance to faculty members on how they should approach the use of AI in the classroom.
“The other matter I wanted to put on the table has to do with ChatGPT and artificial intelligence as a matter that might have been forgotten now,” Peterson said. “We certainly would benefit from having guidance (regarding AI) from people who are part of a committee.”
Braun directed Peterson to the Information Technology Committee and their materials related to the use of generative AI. The University is the first major school to provide generative AI services for its entire community. U-M GPT is a language model-based chatbot that functions like ChatGPT.
The school-wide internet outage at the beginning of the fall semester was also discussed by the assembly. Brian Love, an engineering and dentistry professor, emphasized the importance of developing a plan for faculty to follow in the case of future internet outages and how to mitigate internet security risks in general.
“I think it’d be appropriate (for) the faculty senate to at least ask for some kind of recommendation (about what to do) with regard to all of the issues relating to risk management,” Love said.
The last section of the meeting was reserved for faculty members to bring new issues to the table. Braun raised issues involving how the U-M athletic department will proceed following charges against Mel Tucker, Michigan State University’s football coach, for alleged Title IX violations. Braun said the incident made him think about past Title IX violations at the University of Michigan and what could be further done to ensure compliance.
“Again, whether he has violated the Title IX laws at MSU regardless of having made a very bad decision in his life, I do think again that (this incident) brings back conversations that we deal with here at our very own institution,” Braun said.
The assembly also discussed the bill signed by Governor Gretchen Whitmer, legalizing alcohol sales at college stadiums in the state, including Michigan Stadium. Braun said he was interested in the Athletic Department’s opinion and plan for potential sale of alcohol at Michigan football games and how revenue from alcohol sales could be used.
“I think if we asked the athletic department we probably know what their thoughts are,” Braun said. “But it would be nice to know if there’s a plan for this income.”
Members also discussed affordable housing options for graduate students and potential actions the assembly could take to provide more affordable housing near campus. Love suggested the assembly work to better understand the current housing situation by obtaining a status report on ongoing construction projects around campus, including the demolition of the Northwood III complex, which had previously been open to graduate students.
“I wonder whether all of the activity on North Campus is actually on hold as a result of the movement to put the housing on the Fingerle property and only work on South Campus,” Love said.
Braun said the housing issue could be a topic for future discussion between the Faculty Senate Government Relations Advisory Committee and Ann Arbor city government.
“I think (affordable student housing) is something that we should be discussing with the Ann Arbor government to try and figure out a solution to make it more affordable for graduate students to live in the city or at least close to it,” Braun said.
Daily Staff Reporter Ji Hoon Choi can be reached at jicho@umich.edu.
