The Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs met Monday afternoon via Zoom in the Alexander G. Ruthven Building to discuss faculty engagement across the University of Michigan’s three campuses, ethical investing at the university, and other topics.
The meeting began with a discussion among SACUA members about the recently established committee and its goals. Tom Brown, professor of biostatistics and SACUA member, said one of the new committees, the Faculty Advisory Group, is currently working on a faculty salary report.
“We have two faculty members working with graduate students from the Econ department who are analyzing the data, and their job right now is to make sure that the process we used for the report is correct,” Brown said. “After that, they’ll be taking a look at the current salary information and then we’ll hopefully have a report by the end of the summer based on that data.”
Brown said the committee will use the report to make future recommendations to the administration regarding teacher pay.
“I know that once that report is completed, the two faculty members responsible for this will give the provost’s office some recommendations as to where to go,” Brown said.
SACUA also discussed further building relationships among faculty through social events involving faculty from different schools and UM campuses. Simon Cushing, associate professor of philosophy at the University of Flint and SACUA member, said it may be difficult to bring together faculty from all three UM campuses, especially in person.
“Zoom makes it easier (to meet), but I don’t know if you’d have the same experience if you met on Zoom instead of in person,” Cushing said. “You could argue that you want Flint to come every once in a while, but it’s going to be hard to get people down from Ann Arbor. And you guys vastly outnumber us, so it’s hardly fair. there is no.”
Soumya Rangarajan, clinical assistant professor of internal medicine and SACUA member, said she liked the idea of hosting social events on all three campuses because she believes it is important for faculty to experience the entire university.
“I think it’s important to look at other campuses,” Rangarajan said. “I’ve never set foot on the Flint or Dearborn campuses. I think it’s really important, especially for those of us involved in the Senate, to know what other campuses are like. So I’m interested. I think it’s good to hold an event at least once a year for people.”
SACUA also discussed ethical investing at universities and other university campuses. Rebecca Modrak, art and design professor and SACUA president, said she would encourage the committee to discuss ethical investing in a broader way, rather than specifically addressing the issue of divestment.
“I think it’s best not to talk about divestment because the board rejected our proposal twice,” Modrak said. “So rather than tackling it head-on like that, the approach seems to be to talk about it within the larger framework of ethical investing that aligns with the values of the Vision 2034 plan.”
Rangarajan said he would like to know more about the university’s decision to divest from oil and gas companies in 2021 and how it relates to ethical investing.
“I’m interested in the history of when we got out of oil and gas,” Rangarajan said. “How did everybody come together? I’m fascinated that we were able to actually push through, because people seem to have very different opinions on these things.”
Derek Peterson, a SACUA member and professor of history and African American and African studies, said the university’s choices to divest from oil and gas companies and other financial decisions align with the idea of ethical investing. It added that it was done.
“Michigan already makes ethical investment choices, such as not sending money to Russia or South Africa after the invasion of Ukraine, just not named as such,” Peterson said. “Because the university has an absolute policy of protecting endowments from pressure, there is also no container or framework within which university faculty and other stakeholders can make claims about the ethical nature of our investments.”
Next, SACUA members discussed how some universities, such as Michigan State University, are transparent about their investments, while the university is not. Faculty Senate Executive Director Luke McCarthy said the reason the university is not transparent about its investments is because it signs non-disclosure agreements, but McCarthy said those agreements are ethical. I questioned whether or not.
“There are a number of companies that the university works with, and we wouldn’t have done so if we hadn’t signed a non-disclosure agreement,” Professor McCarthy said. “Perhaps these confidentiality agreements shouldn’t be signed. It may end up limiting the fund managers the university works with, but perhaps it’s worth it from a community ethical perspective.” There will be.”
Finally, Mr. Brown mentioned an email sent to the entire SACUA following the publication of a Michigan Daily article criticizing Mr. Brown’s comments regarding Jewish members’ concerns about anti-Semitism in the Senate. Brown said he felt this was an attempt to silence him.
“It is unacceptable for SACUA members to be attacked privately and publicly in front of all SACUA members for comments made during SACUA meetings,” Brown said. “The purpose of the email sent to us was to humiliate, humiliate and silence me due to a personal disagreement between me and the SACUA President. All of us have the right to express our opinions and the opinions of those with whom we are speaking, without implying any motives or personal characteristics.”
Ms. Modrak, who was recently elected SACUA chair for next year, said the email had nothing to do with her and that the author was only referring to her in interpreting Brown’s comments about anti-Semitism.
“It had nothing to do with me,” Modrak said. “These are the comments you posted on the Daily, to which a faculty member responded. She brought up my name in the context of the fact that I am Jewish, but you say I said no.”
Daily staff reporter Alyssa Tisch can be reached at: tischaa@umich.edu.
