USC Academic Senate

Learn about how Senate committees work: purpose, process, and the importance of faculty service in the Senate

Check out this report on the 2018 Fall Retreat discussion about Gender Violence and Harassment, as written in the Senate's Fall 2018 Newsletter: Understanding the issues, the STEM report, and intersectionality

Check out this report on Shared Governance from the 2018 Fall Retreat, part of the Senate's Fall 2018 Newsletter: Current structures, insights, and the Task Force on Shared Governance

Check out the latest President's Blog, part of the Senate's Fall 2018 Newsletter: Teaching evaluations, free speech, and engagement as the path forward

Letter from Senate President Yaniv Bar-Cohen to all USC faculty: Academic Senate Meeting with Presidential Search Advisory Committee https://bit.ly/2MDFjuM

See link below to view the Memorandum sent by Provost Quick and Senate President Yaniv Bar-Cohen on July 16, 2018 regarding a Joint Provost/Academic Senate Task Force on Sexual Harassment.

Call for Faculty Nominations for Presidential Search Committee https://academicsenate.usc.edu/nominations-for-faculty-for/

FYI, an interview from last week with Rick Caruso concerning his thoughts on USC topics

With the US Supreme Court upholding the latest travel ban directly affecting citizens of Iran, North Korea, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and Venezuela our hearts go out to our fellow faculty, and our staff and students, and all of their family and friends who are affected by this. The Executive Board of the Academic Senate wants you to know that we stand with you and will do what we can to help. A number of useful resources can be found at the USC Gould Student, Faculty, and Staff Immigrant Legal Advice Project (https://bit.ly/2N2hlWP) and at the Provost’s page on Supporting Students, Staff, and Faculty of All National Origins and Immigration Status (https://bit.ly/2I2xxom).

An update from the USC Senate Executive Board: Correction to Reports about Appointment of an Interim President

Statement Re: Resignation of President C.L. Max Nikias Dear Faculty, We are very encouraged by the message to the community from Rick Caruso and the Board of Trustees. Our community is in pain, and we welcome a transition that can begin the process of healing. We look forward to the opportunity to work closely with the Board of Trustees to guide the future of the University of Southern California and hope that this will be just the beginning of a true longer-term working rel...ationship between the Board and the Faculty. As you know, the Academic Senate on Wednesday passed a resolution that called for the resignation of President C.L. Max Nikias. In doing this, the Senate was aware of the various allegations of wrongdoing or poor judgment that have been made, while recognizing that there is much that we still have not learned. But more importantly, the Senate recognized that throughout the past year there has been an increasing breakdown of trust between the President and the academic community. Our conclusion, having listened to many voices, both individual and organized, was that this break in trust was irreparable, and that the only way forward for the university was a change in the presidency. This decision was not intended to denigrate the major accomplishments of President Nikias' tenure for which he can rightly take credit. But it was a decision the Senate believed was in the best interest of the University. With this change, we have cause to be optimistic. We second the request from the Board of Trustees for patience, and we look forward to working together with them to ensure the healing of our students, staff, faculty, parents and alumni, and towards the betterment of the University. Paul Rosenbloom President of the Academic Senate

Follow up to yesterday's Senate vote on President Nikias Dear Faculty, Yesterday, the Academic Senate, as the elected body that represents the faculty, voted to recommend that President Nikias step down as the leader of the University. We didn’t do this lightly or quickly. We did this after listening to many voices over an extended period of time. Just yesterday, we met directly with President Nikias, heard frank details from the Office of Equity and Diversity about the inves...tigation into Dr. Tyndall, and listened carefully at a town hall meeting we initiated, where faculty members spoke passionately to us of their concerns. We have also have received emails and calls from numerous faculty and heard from the elected faculty councils across many of the schools we represent. With our vote the Senate recognizes that a change of leadership is needed at this point to move us forward, while fully recognizing the seriousness of such a statement . The Senate further recognizes the profound anger and sadness throughout our university community. We join with our students, staff, alumni, and parents in reaching out to the victims of Dr. Tyndall to express our collective outrage, and our admiration and gratitude for your bravery in coming forward. We also recognize that the University currently has an opportunity to make profound and important changes, to create a community going forward where no such behavior is ever again tolerated because everyone is invested in living up to our values. No one should be afraid to report any failures in our systems or feel that their concerns will not be acted on. We recognize that we do not currently have that situation. Some of our fellow faculty have expressed concern that we have moved so quickly as to be precipitous, and others have expressed concern that we have moved so slowly as to be obstructive. But we continue to promise that we will do our best for the future of the faculty, the university, and all of the other communities so central to it. At this point we awaiting a response to our resolution, and considering next steps. We will keep you informed as the situation moves forward. Paul Rosenbloom President of the Academic Senate

Dear Fellow Faculty, I want to let you all know that the Academic Senate voted to request President Nikias’s resignation on the afternoon of March 23. The full resolution is below (I just added the C. L. here, which should have been there originally). "We the Academic Senate, as the elected body of the Faculty of the University of Southern California, believe that new leadership is in the best interest of the University now and going forward. Therefore, we call on Presi...dent C. L. Max Nikias to resign." The resolution was passed with 24 yes votes, 0 no votes, and 4 abstentions. Paul Rosenbloom, President of the Academic Senate

Paul Rosenbloom's final blog post as Senate President summarizing this year's Senate activities.