UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- At its first meeting of the 2022-23 academic year on Sept. 13, the Penn State Faculty Senate heard an update on the University’s budget, passed a set of interrelated updates to its policies on first-year seminars and first-year engagement for students, and continued its work to add diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) to the charges of its standing committees. 

Faculty Senate Chair Michele Stine, who officially began her leadership role in July, offered forward-looking remarks on the importance of shared governance and partnership with the University’s leadership as Penn State enters a new era in its history. 

“We are starting an exciting new chapter at Penn State, and I am excited to welcome President Neeli Bendapudi to her first meeting of the senate, along with Senior Vice President and Chief of Staff Michael Wade Smith and Interim Executive Vice President and Provost Justin Schwartz,” Stine said. “I could not be more excited to have the opportunity to forge a relationship with our new administration, and I look forward to working together in the coming years and moving Penn State forward.” 

Updates from University leadership 

Penn State President Neeli Bendapudi, officially addressing the full senate for the first time since beginning her presidency, thanked the senate for its dedication to stewarding the University’s curriculum and academic policies and for serving as a valued partner in the shared governance of the institution. Bendapudi shared an overview of the work she’s undertaken since beginning her term, including meeting with faculty, staff, students and leadership at each of Penn State’s campuses and colleges; instituting a new approach to strategic enrollment management in line with best practices used by other universities; and working closely with stakeholders across the University on balancing Penn State’s budget. 

“Great institutions endure and each of us, while we are here, are temporary stewards of our phenomenal institution,” Bendapudi said, thanking the senate for their partnership in the shared governance of the University. “I feel very optimistic about our future. As someone who came to this country at 23 or 24, I have been so many places, but here I feel like I’m where I’m supposed to be. It feels right.” 

Sara Thorndike, Penn State’s senior vice president for finance and business/treasurer, spoke in greater depth about the University’s ongoing efforts to balance its budget, which has been impacted by factors including significant inflation, flat state funding for a number of years, decreasing enrollment, and revenue pressures influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Thorndike acknowledged the current budget process as a challenge, but not a crisis, stressing that Penn State is financially healthy and well-equipped to weather this situation. A broadly representative group including faculty, staff and administrators are working collaboratively on a new budget allocation model, in order to help achieve a balanced budget by the summer of 2025. Thorndike said this group is taking a multi-pronged approach to enhance revenues, find efficiencies and reduce spending, with an eye for being more strategic and targeted with future budgetary reductions and expenditures, and working with the Pennsylvania legislature to develop additional support from the commonwealth. 

“We are working to address these challenges as quickly as possible, with as many transparent communications as possible, and we have really appreciated Michele’s partnership as we work on this,” Thorndike said. “It is going to take all of us to overcome the challenges we face, and we plan to communicate extensively with our community, including the Board of Trustees, with our Academic Leadership Council, our department heads and chairs, and the rest of our stakeholders across the University, as we work through this process.” 

Schwartz, who began as the University’s interim executive vice president and provost in August, also spoke about his ongoing efforts to connect with as many faculty and stakeholders as possible in order to best serve the University and its faculty members. “I can say with clarity that I strongly share Neeli’s optimism for Penn State’s future,” he said. “The core of our University is our faculty, and because of the strength of our faculty we, as an institution, are extremely strong and our future is bright.” 

For community members interested in greater detail regarding Penn State’s budget, Bendapudi, Thorndike and Schwartz also recently hosted two virtual town hall meetings on Sept. 14, one for faculty and staff and one for students and parents, to share additional details and answer questions from the community about the budget and other related topics. 

First-year seminars and other policy updates 

The senate passed a series of updates to its policies connected to first-year seminar courses and first-year engagement plans, as part of the senate’s commitment to reviewing these policies every five years to continue best serving students. The updates make housekeeping changes to the language used in the policies, recommend the creation of a new course number for interdisciplinary seminars, and create a new special senate committee to further evaluate and make recommendations to continue enhancing first-year engagement plans and learning goals. 

The senate also reviewed a set of proposed updates to nine interrelated University policies connected to general education requirements. While these updates would not substantively change or alter general education requirements in any way, they codify and bring all relevant academic policies in line with current practices across the University. Among other clarifications, these updates propose streamlining the process through which a student can request a one-time authorization to use three general education credits from one area to satisfy a three-credit requirement in another area. The streamlined process would involve creating an automated option within LionPath to make the request.  The senate will vote on these updates at its October meeting. 

Other legislation passed by the senate includes an update to the University’s policy detailing search procedures for academic administrative positions, which was developed in close collaboration with the vice provost for faculty affairs and associate vice president for affirmative action to align the policy’s language with search processes and best practices already in use across the University.  

Continuing the senate’s commitment to adding diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) to the charges of each its standing committees, the senate also voted to formally add DEI to the charges of its Committee on Educational Equity and Campus Environment; Committee on Admissions, Records, Scheduling and Student Aid; and Committee on Outreach. 

Other business 

The senate also: 

• Passed three related updates clarifying the role of the senate’s elections commission, creating two new subcommittees within the Committee on Committees and Rules, and updating how the senate’s election tellers are selected to be from within the existing elections commission; 

• Passed updates to the senate’s policy related to student athletes and athletic competitions at University Park to increase collaboration with Penn State Intercollegiate Athletics and create a new subcommittee that can approve student athlete schedule requests; 

• Received a report from the Committee on Curricular Affairs providing information on Penn State’s United States cultures and international cultures course requirements; and, 

• Heard an update regarding Penn State University Libraries’ license renegotiations with Elsevier related to access to certain journals and scholarly publications. 
   

The next senate meeting will take place on Oct. 18 both in-person in 112 Kern Graduate Building on the University Park campus and in a virtual format via Zoom.