President Mark Schlissel and Provost Susan M. Collins spoke during an Oct. 4 Faculty Senate meeting that included faculty members criticizing aspects of the university’s pandemic response.

Several Faculty Senate members spoke in favor of five resolutions that have been submitted for Senate consideration. No faculty members spoke against them. Four proposals are related to the pandemic, and one deals with how the university addresses sexual misconduct.

Voting on the proposals was to start after the meeting ended and remain open for 48 hours.

The pandemic-related resolutions urge the university to:

• Direct Work Connections to validate and support all medically supported requests to work remotely, and create a process for appealing Work Connections decisions.

• Increase COVID-19 testing frequency to twice a week for unvaccinated people and adjust a prompt on the ResponsiBLUE symptom-tracker app.

 • Re-evaluate and adjust its policy for in-person instruction to better incorporate faculty input.

• Provide employees who care for young children with additional support, including the option to move their teaching or office work online if their children cannot attend school in person. 

 “I think we have a responsibility to do everything we can to ensure that we keep our community and ourselves safe,” said Miranda Brown, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor and professor of Chinese studies, in support of the motion about testing frequency.

A fifth resolution calls for the university to adopt measures related to sexual misconduct, including requiring faculty or administrative search committees to gather written statements from committee members disclosing details about known or suspected allegations of misconduct.

Schlissel and Collins spoke to about two dozen people in the Law School’s Honigman Auditorium, as well as those watching online. More than 550 people registered to participate in the meeting via Zoom. The public also was able to view a livestream of the meeting.

Both university leaders said it felt good to be back on campus this fall, and highlighted several recent in-person events and programs.

Schlissel said while students are happy about the return of in-person instruction, he recognizes that faculty and staff continue to feel anxieties around the pandemic.

He referred people to an email he sent last week regarding the proposals, and said he and Collins are working to address the issues that the proposals have raised.

 “We continue to work on these concerns and hopefully continue to work on them collaboratively with you all,” he said.

Also in this week’s voting, Faculty Senate members will choose a new secretary and parliamentarian.

Former SACUA chair Colleen Conway, professor of music education, and former SACUA member Deirdre Spencer, a librarian, are running for secretary. Paul Fossum, professor of education at UM-Dearborn, is running for parliamentarian.