Academic Senate Welcome Remarks
Prepared Remarks by
Steve Rein
Chair of Academic Senate
California Polytechnic State University
2012 FALL CONFERENCE GENERAL SESSION
Monsday, September 10, 2011
8:45 a.m.
Recreation Center Gym
On behalf of the faculty, I want to welcome those of you new to Cal Poly and to welcome back to a new academic year those of you who have already been here some time.
This coming year promises to be one with some tough decisions for the University, and only some of them can be blamed on the state budget. In the spirit of shared governance, the faculty will be playing an active and vital role in the discussion of these challenging issues.
We look forward to working with the president, the provost and the deans to tackle the challenge of diversity. In the same way, we look forward to providing support to departments and the colleges in their continued implementation of the Teacher-Scholar Model as the Academic Senate requested in a resolution last spring.
There are, of course, many other issues which I could mention now, however, let's cut to the most important:
As faculty, we believe that the primary purpose of the University is to challenge students, to inspire them to think and learn and to give students unique opportunities to grow and to become the leaders they are capable of becoming. This does not change, even during difficult budget times.
However, considering the best and most effective means of challenging our students to learn and grow comes with some difficult decisions. Perhaps tough budget times can help us clarify our priorities. During this coming year I expect that many or even most of the Academic Senate discussions will touch on matters relating to the curriculum, assessment, budget and the use of technology. We need to carefully consider how we reshape Cal Poly into a 21st century comprehensive polytechnic in such a way that we take on an even greater Learn by Doing nature.
While we aren't thrilled with the reasons for our budget challenges, we do welcome the opportunities to work with the administration to continue to increase the quality of the educational experience Cal Poly provides her students.
Lastly, a personal note: I hope that you will take the opportunity to chat with me about issues of concern to you, and I wish you all the best in this upcoming academic year.
San Luis Obispo, California 93407