2025-2026 Resolutions, Motions and Initiatives

The Faculty Senate at a standing meeting on April 15, 2026, approved sending the following letter on shared governance to Northwestern's Board of Trustees: 

To the Board of Trustees. 

Northwestern University frequently touts its commitment to a thriving faculty and shared governance. If ever there was an issue that called for a collaborative attitude from the University it is health care, which affects each of us and our families personally and intimately. Yet, the healthcare change was made, not in partnership, but in secret, and reflects a pattern by which faculty are excluded from important decisions. 

Failing to include faculty in important decisions of the University betrays our trust. The health care decision reveals the costs. Collaborating with faculty and staff earlier, and communicating more meaningfully, would have been much more efficient. 

To make shared governance real, we ask the Board to support our call for the University to improve its performance in including faculty in relevant decisions. A minimum step is for the administration to include the Senate as partners from the beginning of decisions that affect our capacities to do our jobs. 

This letter and other communications from the Senate should make clear that meaningful action is necessary to rectify missteps, restore trust, and reestablish a healthy working relationship. 

Respectfully,
The Faculty Senate 

The Faculty Senate at a standing meeting on April 15, 2026, approved the following resolution: 

WHEREAS, in recent years, annual salary increases have not kept pace with inflation. Furthermore, no raise pool was provided in FY2025-26, while health benefits cost-sharing has increased; and 

WHEREAS, the impact has accumulated for Northwestern employees, with the lowest paid bearing the highest burden and experiencing difficulty covering basic necessities. Northwestern is also losing its competitive advantage as a preferred employer in the region. For example, entry-level compensation at local high schools has surpassed that of some full-time Northwestern faculty, and 

WHEREAS, compensation at Northwestern typically operates through an annual merit-raise (AMR) structure rather than automatic cost-of-living adjustment. In its current form, this AMR structure provides insufficient opportunities for Northwestern employees to adequately address a growing cost-of-living crisis; and 

WHEREAS, Northwestern leadership has stated that addressing salaries is a priority for the coming fiscal year. 

THEREFORE, the faculty believes that the merit pool structure is insufficient to achieve the institutional priority of addressing salaries in FY2026-27. 

BE IT RESOLVED that the Faculty Senate calls on University leadership to take the following special measures in FY2026-27: 

• Prioritize bringing the lowest salaries up to an acceptable level. 
• Allocate funds for a cost-of-living adjustment 

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED the Faculty Senate wishes to collaborate with University leadership in reviewing and improving compensation policies and procedures to better address cost-of-living concerns in the future. 

The Faculty Senate at a standing meeting on April 15, 2026, endorsed the following statement in support of a letter sent by Council of Language Instruction Faculty to Northwestern administrators: 

"We senators strongly endorse the concerns and requests expressed in the attached letter regarding faculty compensation. The sustained gap between salary increases and inflation, combined with the absence of cost-of-living adjustments, has created a growing and unsustainable financial strain, especially for lower paid non-tenure eligible faculty in the arts and humanities across schools. Addressing this issue through a meaningful cost-of-living adjustment, alongside merit-based increases, is both a necessary and equitable step. Taking action now will help restore financial stability, reinforce institutional trust, and demonstrate a genuine commitment to valuing faculty contributions."

The Faculty Senate approved the following members of the Committee on Cause on October 8, 2025: 

• Jon Guryan, Professor, Education and Social Policy (SESP) — Chair
• Nick Cianciotto, Professor, Microbiology-Immunology (Feinberg)
• Caryn Ward, Professor, Journalism Undergrad (Medill)
• TJ Billard, Assistant Professor, Communication Studies (SoC)
• Vicente Garcia Tomas, Assistant Professor, Anesthesiology (Feinberg)
• Julia Oliver Rajan, Associate Professor of Instruction, Spanish and Portuguese (WCAS)
• Heather Risser, Assistant Professor, Psychiatry and Behav. Sciences (Feinberg)
• Greg Miller, Professor, Psychology (WCAS)

The Faculty Senate approved the following slate of standing committee chairs on October 8, 2025:

• Ravi Jagannathan, Professor, Finance (Kellogg): Budget and Planning
• Jon Guryan, Professor, Education and Social Policy (SESP): Committee on Cause
• Jacqueline Babb, Senior Lecturer, Int. Marketing Communications (Medill): Educational Affairs
• Ann Bradlow, Professor, Linguistics (WCAS): Faculty Handbook
• Mark Alznauer, Associate Professor, Philosophy (WCAS): Faculty Rights and Responsibilities
• Danny M. Cohen, Professor of Instruction, Non-Tenure (SESP): Faculty Survey
• Andrew Koppelman, Professor, Law Instruction (Pritzker): Governance
• Cat Fabian, Clinical Assistant Professor, Non-Tenure (SoC): Non-Tenure Eligible
• Pablo Durango-Cohen, Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering (McCormick): Research Affairs
• Ian Horswill, Associate Professor, Computer Science (McCormick): Salary and Benefits
• Kasey Evans, Associate Professor, English (WCAS): Social Responsibility
• Ana Maria Acosta, Associate Professor, Phys. Thpy. and Hum. Mov. Sci. (Feinberg): Student Affairs