Faculty Senate President Joella Mehrhof welcomes her fellow faculty members before the meeting Tuesday at Visser Hall. Aliss Miller/ The Bulletin
The first Faculty Senate meeting of the school year was held Tuesday afternoon in Visser Hall Room 330.
“We kind of have to reorganize ourselves and see how we like to look at each other and hear each other, and this was kind of a different set up, but I think we’ll fix that for next time,” said Joella Mehrhoof, Faculty Senate President and professor of health, physical education.
The first order of business was a group photo of the senators and executive board followed by announcements. Vice President and Provost of Academic Affairs Tes Mehring discussed the Red Balloon Project, a movement set to keep four-year institutions at their best. The project is sponsored by American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU). A discussion at http://emporia.campuspack.net/Groups/esu/Red-Balloonis open until Sept. 24 as an effort to set up Red Balloon Activities at Emporia State.
“There’s a spark to keep us as faculty interested in what we’re doing and continuing to explore new ideas, new venues for capturing student interest. To me that’s what the Red Balloon Project is about,” Mehring said.
Senators Giovanna Follo and Lynette Schreiner volunteered to serve on the Foundations Grant Committee for the ESU Foundation, which Mehrhof said allows faculty to apply for grants to do things in the classroom.
“Sometimes faculty just need a little bit of money to do an amazing thing, so these grants allow that to happen,” Mehrhof said.
Senator and assistant professor of mathematics, computer science and economics Rob Catlett called the senate’s attention to the American Democracy project, which is holding a forum between the two candidates for U.S. House of Representatives in the first district of Kansas, Tim Huelskamp and Alan Jilka. Catlett said the event will begin at approximately 7 p.m. on Sept. 27 in Albert Taylor Hall and is open to the public. He said the start time could be a few minutes earlier if the event is put on live television.
“We may have people coming from all over for this and we really want a large group of students because this will be the representative for people who live in this community and who are students in this community,” Catlett said.
Senior social science major and ASG President Jonathan Rivers said this was the first Faculty Senate meeting he attended without another member of ASG. He said going to the meetings gives a different perspective on issues facing the school.
“I think it’s really interesting hearing the faculty perspective on things because my life is the students, so hearing from the faculty sheds new light on things,” Rivers said.
Mehrhof said starting this year, she will attend ASG meetings. She said as long as she can remember, the ASG president has come to faculty senate meetings, but she doesn’t recall a Faculty Senate president visiting the students’ meetings.
“It’s kind of a nice parallel to what the faculty are doing and what the students are doing, it’s a bonding thing,” Mehrhof said.
Lauren Walbridge
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