University president also talks about economic woes at annual senate address
By JASON McFARLEY
News Editor
Father Edward Malloy, University president, made an appeal Wednesday to the Faculty Senate to not dissolve, despite the body's struggle in recent years to gain power from administrators and respect from other faculty members.
"I believe that we need a faculty senate," Malloy said during his annual address to the group. "It's traditionally been a vehicle for the faculty to have an advocate and a voice that can articulate colleagues' concerns to the administration or the Academic Council."
But more important than the question of whether the senate should exist was the issue of the body's ability to effect change, Malloy said.
"It's a matter of to what extent do thing that arise in the faculty, through the senate, have a chance of being resolved," he said.
The embattled senate voted to dissolve itself in May, at the urging of then-senate chair Jean Porter. Newly elected senators rescinded the vote and opted not to disband.
This fall, senate chair Jacqueline Brogan has led efforts to restructure the senate, reform targeted at changing prevailing attitudes among administrators and faculty who perceive the senate as powerless and ineffective.
In fact, the senate has little formal authority.
While the senate can pass resolutions and place issues on the Academic Council agenda, the senate lacks power to even disband. Although members voted in May to dissolve the senate, the change would have needed approval from the Academic Council, Malloy and the Board of Trustees.
"It shouldn't be surprising that there have been instances when the faculty has been frustrated, when administrators have been frustrated ... It's been my experience of relating to faculty individually that Notre Dame is a great place to be," Malloy said. "There's temperaments, personalities, people who you like more than others. But in general, this is a great place to be an administrator."
In past years, Malloy has turned to the senate for input on the Univerity's sexual harassment policy, he said. Notre Dame professors also play key roles on an advisory committee to Provost Nathan Hatch and the faculty committee on athletics that reports to Malloy.
"It's been a very vibrant group and has historically had a good relationship with the administration," Brogan said of the senate.
"This group could be so interesting and so vital that my life could be a lot more difficult," Malloy joked.
In other business, Malloy expressed concern about the economic impact that the Sept. 11 attacks will have on Notre Dame.
The most evident sign of the financial woes possibly in store for the University was the loss on the record-breaking endowment returns. Notre Dame's 60 percent return on its $3 billion endowment was the highest of any school last fiscal year. About 17 percent of that return has been lost.
"Even with the downturn in the economy and benchmarking other schools, we are doing reasonably well," the University president said. "We had very dramatic gains in certain kinds of investments. We were also lucky to sell them before they had dramatic drops."
Malloy said other indicators of economic decline would become clear next semester, as families and donors struggled with paying tuition and pledges, respectively.
"Those are factors we will have to continue to monitor," he said.
Malloy also alluded vaguely to the feasibility of future campus construction initiatives. The University has announced plans for expanded engineering and law school facilities and a new hotel.
"Each of these projects requires funding before we can move ahead. Very seldom is a building totally funded by a benefactor."
Contact Jason McFarley at
mcfarley.1@nd.edu
All News Stories for Thursday, November 8, 2001
