The UF Faculty Senate held its first-ever summer meeting Friday over Zoom to vote on approval of two degree proposals for the Hamilton Center, the university's state-mandated civic center which has been fast-tracked to become a college by 2025.
The Hamilton Center, which aims to teach students the Western canon, has been a focus of tension on campus since it was approved by Florida’s Republican-majority Legislature in 2022. An obscure organization called the Council on Public University Reform hired a lobbyist to advocate for the center’s formation.
The center received $27 million from this year’s state budget and hired 21 new faculty in May after receiving more than 1,200 applications. The center is currently developing its curriculum.
A bachelor’s in philosophy, politics, economics and law and a bachelor’s in Great Books and ideas were approved during the meeting, although some senators were unable to access the online ballot because of technology issues. During a May 2 Faculty Senate meeting, senators failed to move both degree proposals to the action committee after not reaching the required two-thirds vote.
Senate procedures usually move information items to the next meeting’s action agenda, which explains why the two degree proposals were action items in the agenda for Friday’s faculty meeting. Faculty Senate Chair Sarah Lynne said this was a faster way to get info items onto the action committee in the same meeting.
Faculty senators questioned whether the two proposed degree programs will overlap with curriculum in other UF departments and colleges, such as the economics department or the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences.
“I do believe that there was some missed consultations with the economics department, potentially as well as food and resource economics, given the offerings of those classes and the majors,” said Jaclyn Kropp, a College of Agricultural and Life Sciences senator.
Assistant Provost Tobin Shorey responded to Kropp by saying members of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences and Liberal Arts and Sciences were on the University Curriculum Committee and did not raise any concerns regarding the degree proposals.
Provost Scott Angle also reported to the Faculty Senate on the university’s first round of post-tenure review. Of more than 1,200 tenured faculty, 258 were selected for post-tenure review in this year’s cycle, according to Angle.
Angle said 21% of the 258 were assessed as unsatisfactory or didn’t meet expectations, or retired, quit or are working with deans to become full-time teachers if they didn’t meet research requirements. Those numbers are subject to change with UF President Ben Sasse’s review and final approval, Angle said.
“I can tell you that those that were defined as non-satisfactory were not good teachers,” Angle said. “They were not good researchers, and they were not doing any service. I found them to be quite easy and quite obvious.”
Angle said this year’s post-tenure review process was “rushed” due to state-mandate and encouraged senators to provide feedback on how the process can be improved in future cycles.
Lynne said only the active faculty senators from the 2023-2024 year could vote during the meeting. Newly elected senators have to be initiated in August before they can vote.
This is the first time a Faculty Senate meeting has been held during the summer, according to available UF records. The Faculty Senate held an open forum in May 2012.
The Constitution Committee will consider permanently adding a June senate meeting to the schedule to address decisions by the Board of Trustees and Board of Governors, both of which regularly meet in June, according to Lynne.
Lynne said she held the special meeting to address campus safety, in reference to an undercover Messianic Jewish activist who tried exposing UF Muslim professors’ biases about the Israel-Hamas war.
Interim UFPD chief Bart Knowles told the Faculty Senate an investigation found the activist hadn’t committed any crimes in his meetings with professors, but the department is coordinating with law enforcement in the activist’s jurisdiction to trespass him.
Contact Timothy Wang at twang@alligator.org. Follow him on X @timothyw_g
Timothy Wang is a junior journalism student and the Fall 2024 Santa Fe College Reporter. He was the University Administration reporter for Summer 2024. His hobbies include gaming or reading manga.
