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The University’s Faculty Senate met Thursday over Zoom to discuss an array of topics concerning academic well-being at the University. Senators discussed and voted on a number of topics, including moving away from the University’s online learning platform Collab, the faculty vaccine requirement, the Karsh Institute of Democracy and a new budget model that allows for better multi-year planning.
The Faculty Senate is a conglomerate body of over 80 faculty members across all schools within the University established for the purpose of addressing academic functions including degree programs, modifications to major requirements and all actions affecting faculty at the University. The Senate also advises University President Jim Ryan and the Rector and Board of Visitors on educational and academic welfare concerns of the University community.
The Senate is made up of professors, assistant professors and associate professors who are elected to their respective rank by the Rector and Board of Visitors. These members hail from the many constituent schools of the University and hold four-year terms. Some members of the Senate hold ex-officio status, meaning they maintain purely representative functions and have no voting ability. These members include Ryan, University librarian John Unsworth and the University’s various vice presidents and deans.
Susan Kirk, associate professor of medicine and chair of the Faculty Senate, began the meeting with a vote on approving the minutes.
Learning Management Systems
Philosophy Prof. Brie Gertler — who is currently acting dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and executive sponsor of the Learning Management System Project — then proposed that the University find a new instructional technology to be used by all schools as a replacement for Collab, the University’s current online course management and collaboration system. The Learning Management System Project is a faculty body established by Provost Liz Magill in June for the purpose of identifying and implementing a new learning platform for the University.
“Collab doesn’t have all of the functions that we want our students and our faculty to have access to,” Gertler said.
Collab is based on the open-source, community-developed software Sakai. All universities that currently use Sakai other than Duke University are working towards replacing it, citing that it rarely receives updates after having lost a large amount of its market share. Additionally, users have said its interface and functions are oftentimes confusing for instructors and is not as adaptable to the specific needs of a university as Canvas, another popular learning management system.
“We want the best, easiest, most seamless, most accessible experience for our undergraduates,” Gertler said.
Gertler said that because over half of students take classes in multiple schools at the University, they often have to navigate different learning management systems, which has made completing coursework more difficult. Most schools within the University use Collab, but some — such as the McIntire School of Commerce — use Blackboard, while the School of Education uses Canvas.
“The tools that are embedded in each of [the learning management systems] are different tools so [students] have to master different tools for different classes, and so they have said that they would very much like to have one LMS that they can use in all of their courses and throughout their time here at U.Va.,” Gertler said.
The Learning Management System Project plans to identify a new learning management system and recommend it to the provost in February 2022. If the plan is approved, all of the schools will be using the new LMS in fall 2023.
The group is conducting focus groups to determine a better option with the input of instructional designers and support staff. Course engagement, technical issues, security and the administration of courses are being evaluated in determining a new learning management system.
After analyzing the results of the focus groups and a survey sent to all faculty at the University other than Medicine faculty, the project will send requests to possible companies to see if they would be able to integrate all of the University’s needs into their programs.
School of Education senators expressed worries that switching to another platform so soon after the School of Education recently adopted Canvas would make it difficult for instructors to seamlessly continue courses. Others felt concerned about rapidly switching to a new system without being certain it is the right choice.
Many members of the Senate expressed support for the new universal learning management system to be Canvas, a highly popular learning management system used by universities and high schools across the nation. Many students in the School of Education who are actively working are more familiar with Canvas as they use it both in their courses at the University and with the students they teach.
Employee vaccine requirement
The senate also addressed the new faculty vaccine mandate that was announced Thursday. Due to a recent executive order by President Joe Biden, the University is now requiring all members of the faculty to be fully vaccinated by Dec. 8 unless they have a religious or medical exemption. This mandate does not apply to contracted workers, volunteers or visitors to the University.
Karsh Institute of Democracy
Magill then discussed the University’s new Karsh Institute of Democracy, which was created in June thanks to a $50 million gift and is intended to be a place to study the teaching and promotion of democracy. The physical building will be located on the Emmet-Ivy Corridor.
Rob Patterson, associate Commerce professor and general faculty coordinator of communication, questioned whether the new institute will foster diversity of political deliberation and the exploration of ideological diversity.
Magill responded that this is something the institute hopes to achieve.
“One of the goals of the Democracy Institute is to bring [the University’s existing political institutes] together,” Magill said. “Your question about are we capable of having civil and reasoned conversations across lines of all sorts of differences, identity differences, partisan differences — it’s something that is very much on the agenda of the institute.”
Budget model
Magill then introduced Vice Provost of Planning Adam Daniel, who presented a new budget model for the University. The goals of the new budget model are to align incentives, reduce complexity, generate sustainable strategic funding, better support multi-year planning and better align academic and administrative planning.
“I think the changes in the budget are an extraordinary step forward for the University in a variety of ways,” Magill said. “[The new model is] going to make multi-year planning actually possible because we're going to have a level of predictability that we did not have before and our systems didn't allow it.”
Magill said that through creating better prediction models of revenue, the University will be able to improve its multi-year planning, which will be monumental in establishing longer-term projects at the University.
Before the meeting ended, Ryan sent apologies for missing the meeting due to scheduling conflicts. The next and last senate meeting of the semester will be Nov. 16.
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