After faculty requested better communication from the Faculty Senate last spring, the Council on Faculty Issues developed the new blog.
Courtesy of USF Faculty Senate
By Annalise Anderson
Those curious about USF Faculty Senate happenings won’t need to sift through pages of lengthy meeting minutes to glean crucial information anymore.
A new blog designed to make Faculty Senate more accessible to the USF community launched on Sept. 20 after faculty expressed a need for consistent communication with Senate members.
Information about Faculty Senate activities will be shared via blog posts and categorized to help readers navigate through specific topics. Current categories are legislative news, budget, councils, Faculty Senate and Faculty Senate Executive Committee (FSEC). More categories will be added as needed.
Blog posts will be updated after monthly Faculty Senate meetings and in between meetings to share time-sensitive content. Initial content will include posts about the purpose of the Senate and its councils, as well as meeting highlights from the Senate and FSEC.
Barbara Lewis, social sciences librarian and co-chair of USF Faculty Senate Council on Faculty Issues (CFI), helped to develop the blog.
“The topic of communication with faculty came up at a Council on Faculty Issues meeting last spring,” Lewis said in an email to The Crow’s Nest. “We discussed the need for consistent communication from the Faculty Senate to the general faculty and that the means of communication needed to be more accessible than meeting minutes and reports from department Senators.”
After the discussion, CFI shared its thoughts with Faculty Senate President Tim Boaz and Faculty Affairs Communications Manager Tara Centeno, created a proposal for the blog and received approval from the Senate and FSEC.
Centeno and CFI members will manage the blog. A monthly newsletter based on blog posts will also be sent to USF faculty.
According to Lewis, Faculty Senate information has always been available, and its meetings are open to the public. The blog provides a new, organized channel for faculty, staff and students to stay informed.
The blog can be found at usf.edu/faculty-senate/faculty-senate-news/.
