LMU FACULTY SENATE | Dorothea Herreiner, associate professor of economics and director of LMU’s Experimental Economics Laboratory, was elected president of the Faculty Senate on April 23, 2020, along with a slate for three other positions. Herreiner will virtually receive the ceremonial mace on May 9, what would have been undergraduate commencement day, and the new officers will assume their responsibilities after that.
“These unusual times make this an exciting opportunity to have a faculty voice involved in the critical decisions, short term and long term, that the university faces,” Herreiner said.
Joining her on the executive committee will be: Mónica Cabrera, associate professor of modern languages, elected vice president; Linh Hua, a full-time rhetorical arts instructor, elected secretary; and Nina Lozano, associate professor of communication studies, elected at-large member.
The logistical changes forced on the university by the COVID-19 pandemic have tested the operative shared governance, Herreiner said of the emergency decisions made regarding pedagogy and instruction. “We’ve learned and continue to learn a lot through this,” Herreiner said, “and we’ll preserve what worked, but the future won’t be the same.”
Herreiner, who has served on the Faculty Senate, was director of the Center for Teaching Excellence from 2011-17, and has served on many committees and task forces, including election to the Grievance Committee, and the board of the Reacting-to-the-Past pedagogy. She sees her priorities as: strengthened shared governance, including tapping into the expertise of faculty to inform decision making; attend to the role on non-tenured faculty and their working conditions; review procedure and policy changes of the last few years; and transparent communications, to let everyone know what gets decided, when and why.
Cabrera, the incoming vice president, currently serves on the Committee on Ethnic Diversity in Linguistics of the Linguistic Society of America. Her goals for the Faculty Senate are to focus on the role of faculty in the areas of curriculum, subject matter, pedagogy and research, and to promote transparency and collaborative decision making. She also wants to contribute to safeguarding faculty rights and academic freedom.
Hua, the incoming secretary, has served LMU since 2005 as an adjunct and a visiting assistant professor. Her goals are to clarify the communication channels between the full faculty, Faculty Senate and the executive board to bolster shared governance, and to advocate for equity and inclusion for part-time and contingent faculty, particularly in areas of pay and investment in faculty.
Lozano, the incoming at-large member of the Executive Committee, has served three terms on the Faculty Senate. Her goal is to address the most urgent social justice issues that affect faculty, staff and students, particularly as it relates to part time, clinical and adjunct faculty.
The Faculty Senate – with elected representatives of tenure-line, clinical, and contingent faculty, and professional librarians – is the official voice of the LMU faculty and the centerpiece of faculty participation in shared governance. The Faculty Senate is the formal body that approves policies, exercises general oversight, and addresses questions of governance procedure regarding curriculum, subject matter and methods of instruction, research, faculty status, and those aspects of student life that relate to the educational process, as stated in the Faculty Handbook.
