Newly elected members of the General Faculty Council are brimming with excitement and fresh ideas to bring to the organization when they take office later this month.
The 18-member council represents all general University faculty members, including non-tenure and non-tenure-track faculty members.
For the past few years, the council has directed its efforts at "revising policies that affect employment agreements with the University," Council Chairwoman Patricia L. Foley said.
Policies the group has examined in the past have included reappointment, faculty benefits and issues regarding hiring and termination.
Council Chairman-elect Frank Butros, who the council elected Tuesday, said it is important to continue working with such policies.
One of Butros' goals is to "begin on a positive note" by getting more input from faculty members who are not on the council, he said. "Members of the general faculty community are a part of this too."
He said he hopes council members will work to obtain input from their constituents in the schools they represent. Then, the feedback that general faculty members provide should be turned into concrete goals for the council to meet, he added.
Recently elected Education School representative Mary Abouzeid said she agrees that input from other faculty members is important.
The council hopes to continue last year's tradition of holding "town meetings" at each school in the University to get input from faculty and to provide non-council members with information about the council, Abouzeid said.
Another important goal for this year that council members cite is to raise faculty awareness of the council.
Of the 1,300-1,400 general faculty members at the University, "very few of them probably know they are general faculty" who are represented by the council, Butros said.
To increase awareness and interaction between the general faculty and the council, Abouzeid said the council hopes to hire a University student to create an improved Web site. Ideally, the new Web site would allow users to ask questions and also put pictures of the council members online "so we can be flagged down when we're walking to Cabell," she said.
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