Stanford Report, October 6, 2009

University budget, swine flu, honorific titles on Faculty Senate agenda

John Etchemendy, Ira Friedman, Larry Gibbs and an ad hoc committee charged with examining non-Academic Council appointments will be among those presenting at the first Faculty Senate meeting of the 2009-2010 academic year.

BY KATHLEEN J. SULLIVAN

At the first Faculty Senate meeting of the 2009-2010 academic year, senior officials will present updates on two key issues: the budget and the university's response to swine flu, otherwise known as the H1N1 virus.

Provost John Etchemendy, the university's chief academic and budgetary officer, will provide an update on budget issues at the Oct. 8 meeting.

Dr. Ira Friedman, director of Vaden Health Center, and Lawrence Gibbs, director of the university's Environmental Health and Safety and Emergency Management programs, will discuss the steps Stanford has taken to respond to swine flu.

In addition, the senate will discuss the use of honorific titles at Stanford – an issue that flared up more than two years ago, when the Hoover Institution appointed former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to a task force and gave him the title "distinguished visiting fellow." Rumsfeld was appointed in September 2007 to a one-year position on a task force focused on issues related to ideology and terror.

In response to the controversy, the senate created an ad hoc committee in May 2008 to examine non-academic council appointments and titles.

Geology Professor Gordon Brown, chair of the Committee to Examine Non-Academic Council Appointment Process, will present the group's final report. Among its five recommendations: limit titles for non-Academic Council faculty appointments, and require that non-Academic Council positions (except postdoctoral scholars and postdoctoral fellows) be approved by three faculty members in the relevant Stanford department, school, institute, center or laboratory.

The senate also will hear a report on issues of concern to undergraduates, including cutbacks in research funding and earlier notification of textbook and syllabus announcements, by Varun Sivaram, chair of the ASSU Undergraduate Senate.

The senate meeting is scheduled to begin at 3:15 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 8, in Room 180 of the Law School.

Discussion is limited to members of the senate, but members of the Stanford community may request to attend the meeting by contacting Trish Del Pozzo, assistant academic secretary, at 723-4992 or delpozzo@stanford.edu.