FACULTY SENATE

The Faculty Senate approved the following joint resolution from the Educational Affairs and Faculty Rights and Responsibilities Committees on March 9, 2022:

Whereas academic freedom is essential to responsible teaching and research, and to the functioning of a healthy University and society, 

And whereas Critical Race Theory represents an area of recognized scholarship relevant to the study of racial and social justice, 

And whereas academic freedom to explore scholarship and teaching related to social and racial justice has come under recent attack across the United States within numerous state legislatures, 

Be it resolved that the Northwestern University Faculty Senate opposes legislative attempts to censor credible scholarship and teaching related to racial and social justice, 

And be it further resolved that the Northwestern University Faculty Senate stands in support of our colleagues at Universities and K–12 institutions whose functioning may be affected by such legislation. 

The Faculty Senate approved the following joint resolution from the Budget and Planning and Research Affairs Committees on February 9, 2022:

Whereas staff support is essential to completing every aspect of the University’s mission, 

And whereas current economic conditions have greatly increased competition for competent employees, 

And whereas staff salaries were largely frozen for several years before the pandemic undermining the University’s standing in the local labor market, 

Be it resolved that the University should increase staff compensation, adjust job design, and take other necessary actions to be a preferred employer in Chicago and Evanston so that it can both attract new staff and retain the staff it has, 

And be it further resolved that the University provide the Faculty Senate with regular reports of the number of open positions and how long it is taking to fill positions so faculty can adequately anticipate timelines for hiring. 

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The Faculty Senate voted against proposed amendments to the Faculty Assembly Bylaws on February 9, 2022.  

The Faculty Senate approved the following resolution from the Social Responsibility Committee on November 3, 2021: 

Whereas the University’s own Gender Queer, Non-Binary, and Trans (GQNBT) Task Force Report recommended in 2019 in one of its Key Recommendations that ‘…Northwestern University ensure that University facilities [on all campuses] are safe spaces for trans and gender non-conforming individuals, including ensuring access to all-gender bathrooms’, we resolve that, as soon as possible, and surely before the end of the Winter Quarter 2022, that the University’s central administration: 

1. Commit to updating Northwestern’s maps so that they report the number of all-gender bathrooms for every University building (see contributed database here) and the closest building with an all-gender bathroom from every building; 
2. Change signage for single stall bathrooms to all-gender, as has been done for some but not all single stall bathrooms on campus; 
3. Deliver to the Faculty Senate a strategy and a timeline for adding all-gender bathrooms to all under-served campus buildings, ideally with all necessary permitting and construction work finished by end of Summer 2022; 
4. Prioritize advocating for and surmounting any remaining city or state code restrictions that prevent adding all-gender bathrooms to campus buildings.