As the new chair, I am very excited about working with the Senate, faculty, and administration to face the challenges that are sure to come in the coming year. The senate is a unique part of our university and is a tremendous asset and resource for the campus community.
To my fellow senators, while you number only 35, you represent over 1,200 tenured/tenure track professors and lecturers. You have chosen to take a leadership role in your university and become part of a long tradition that provides a bridge between the faculty and the administration. Without the Senate, there is no shared governance, no formal forum for discussion, leaving only diminished faculty influence. To this aim, I hope to invigorate the Senate meetings so that each Senator feels compelled and comfortable in expressing his/her opinion even (perhaps especially) when the opinion and/or topic is controversial.
To the faculty, I encourage each of you to get involved in your Academic Senate. This involvement can be an important and rewarding part of your academic career. It provides a unique perspective of the inner workings of the university, opportunity to build relationships that would be nearly impossible otherwise, and a forum to be heard that will influence academic policy that affecting students, faculty and the university for years to come. There are many opportunities and levels of involvement available through the senate, such as senator, or as a member of one of our standing, ad hoc, or search committees.
To the administrators, I look forward to working closely with you toward true shared governance. Shared governance is an academic tradition that encompasses mutual helpfulness, collaboration and perspective. For shared governance to take hold and flourish, it does not have to be adversarial, but it does require mutual respect. I feel confident that effective shared governance will lead to a university synergism that can propel the university to be even better than it is today.
To the campus community, we have two senators representing the approximately 20,000 students and 600 staff at Cal Poly Pomona. These senators bring unique perspectives so necessary to discussions of the equally diverse issues and policies.
The Senate is a wonderfully eclectic collection of researchers, strategists, teachers, artists, and engineers who are dedicated to improving Cal Poly Pomona. I look forward to working with everyone and am honored to be Chair of the Academic Senate.
Sincerely,
John T. Self
