University Senate

[Cheerful]

Do you know much about your university senate?  Is it any good?  Good for what?
Opinions?
Does the senate have any influence and/or power?  Is it a "joke?"  Why or why not?
Does your administration care about the Senate?  Does your admin regularly address the Senate?
Have you served on Senate?

[Ruralguy]

We don't have a Senate. Everyone votes on almost everything (save for Promotion and Tenure, and internal grants).
We have a policy committee that vets policy issues for voting and and a curriculum committee that vets curricular issues.
You could probably make a case that those two committees together comprise our closest thing to a Senate.
Sometimes there can be a little too much focus on dotting i's and crossing t's, but occasionally there's a vote on something impactful, and sometimes we even pass something! 

[ciao_yall]

Do you know much about your university senate?  Is it any good?  Good for what?

It's an elected body of faculty. It's a good way for faculty to meet people across campus and learn more about statewide and systemwide issues. There tend to be a lot of the same people but we do have term limits with required gaps in between so others have an opportunity to slip in. 

Opinions?

Like a plane flight - hours of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror.

Does the senate have any influence and/or power?  Is it a "joke?"  Why or why not?

Yes, in the sense that you have very smart and articulate faculty who present at board meetings and point out what problems the college has. The solutions they propose don't tend to involve much more than "do what faculty suggest because we are the smartest people here, as well as being most committed to our city and region."

Does your administration care about the Senate?  Does your admin regularly address the Senate?

Yes, when they are ready to get their heinies handed to them.

Have you served on Senate?

Yes. I enjoyed it. Then I moved into administration because I decided I liked the wonky policy stuff more than teaching.

[Mobius]

Ours seems to a vent session for faculty in 1-2 departments. Frankly, the money isn't there and isn't coming no matter how much one complains in meetings.

[Ruralguy]

I actually found that serving as chair of our policy committee made me really hate admin, administrators, and made me think most policy is rather pointless. I didn't think that way going in, but serving made me very cynical.