Arielle Baskin-Sommers
Assistant Professor, Psychology
DIVISION: Social Sciences
I am finishing my fourth year as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology and welcome an opportunity to become involved in the important work of the FAS Senate. The FAS Senate plays a critical role in fostering a strong sense of community among faculty (both ladder and non-ladder), students, staff, and administrators. It is an ear and a voice for concerns that affect our community and that, if we address these issues with fairness and transparency, the work of the FAS Senate can only serve to make Yale even stronger in all of its endeavors. Those who know me at Yale would probably say that I am not shy about speaking my mind; that I have strong analytical skills that can be useful in developing and testing new strategies and policies; and that I am supportive of my colleagues and students. I see participation in the FAS Senate as a commitment to increasing diversity and inclusion; creating a more encouraging atmosphere for the pedagogical and scholarly activities of all faculty; inspiring conviviality across disciplines and schools; developing ways of becoming more intertwined with our neighbors in New Haven; and strengthening the image of Yale as a vibrant community always in search of innovation aimed at improving the lives of all people. These are the goals and values that I hold dear in both my professional and personal life.
R. Howard Bloch
Sterling Professor, French;
Chair, Department of Spanish and Portuguese
DIVISION: Humanities
If selected to serve, I would work to make Yale, given its extraordinary economic, human, and cultural resources, into all it might be—a place that attracts not only the best students, but that draws faculty who will delight in working and living here. This takes money, of course, but more important than money, it takes a sense of common purpose in carrying out the core educational missions of the university. (For more information about my views on the topic, see: https://www.jstor.org/stable/23558234?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
How, you might ask, might Yale, which is pretty grand already, become such an ideal city?
First, via dialogue—in departments, divisional committees, and the FAS Senate—as to what such educational priorities should be. Second, via communication between administration and faculty on budgetary matters and especially on how educational priorities translate into fund raising as we enter the coming capital campaign. Finally, via the building of intellectual community among Yale’s increasingly diverse student body; of scholarly community among tenured and untenured faculty, the professorate and lectorate; and of workday community among those who teach and conduct research and the staff who make it all happen.
I have long experience of public and private, small and large universities, and have served at Yale as DGS, Director of the Division of the Humanities, and departmental Chair. I would marshal all I have learned here and elsewhere to bear upon articulating, communicating, and implementing a faculty-driven vision of the road ahead for Yale faculty at all levels.
Jill Campbell
Professor, English
DIVISION: Humanities
When Yale’s FAS Senate was founded in 2015, we could not have anticipated the rapid and dramatic changes in the American political landscape that have occurred since then. Our local concerns about decision-making processes and priorities at Yale are dwarfed by the urgent national struggles now facing us. With the value and material conditions of higher education under new assault, we find ourselves facing outward in a new way, needing to justify the work we do and the contribution we make to society. The university ideal of “shared governance” might seem less important now. I believe that at such a time it is even more important that faculty—positioned, as we are, at the core of universities’ educational mission—take a leading role in articulating the university’s purpose and working to discern its way forward in the midst of challenge and change. What are the university’s values, and how does it realize them, on every scale, both in its day-to-day operations and in its vision for the future? How should the university’s resources be distributed as it continues to define and pursue its mission? How can we engage with the world beyond our walls at this critical time? Having served in the FAS Senate’s inaugural class, I am proud of the work we achieved both in major public reports and through the Peer Advisory Committee, in private work with individual faculty members. I would be honored to serve in the FAS Senate again.
Richard Carson
Professor, Biomedical Engineering and Radiology and
Biomedical Engineering
DIVISION: Science and Engineering
The FAS Senate can play a key role at Yale in fostering more effective communications between administration and faculty, and providing a path for all our faculty to have a voice in how we make Yale a better and more vibrant academic environment. I am Professor of Biomedical Engineering (BME), and working in a STEM department, we struggle to find the right balance between research and teaching; this issue is of particular importance for our junior faculty. For the past 8 years, I have served as DGS for BME, and in that role, see many challenges in helping all our faculty to build a positive environment for graduate student growth and ultimate career success. In addition to my BME appointment, I am Professor in Radiology, and lead a large research lab in the Medical School. In that role, I have concerns for many of our multidisciplinary faculty, who may not be well served by our conventional unidisciplinary department structure; this is also a major consideration for new faculty members, many of whom have an academic focus that intrinsically crosses traditional boundaries. If elected, I will do my best to represent all my colleagues, raising their concerns and promoting their interests.
Steve Chang
Assistant Professor, Psychology
DIVISION: Social Sciences
As a neuroscientist in the Department of Psychology who interacts regularly across departments and campuses, I have witnessed the incredible strength of such interactions in modern-day academia. However, I have also observed an important need for leading academic institutes to constructively bring together various disciplines to share ideas and technologies beyond the traditional boundaries. I would love to work with FAS to encourage cross-departmental collaborations in an effort to educate each other and generate new knowledge. As a junior faculty, I was instrumental in the creation of the new undergraduate Neuroscience major at Yale, a collaborative effort across several FAS and medical school departments. Additionally, I serve on several committees across campuses with the goal of fostering interdisciplinary scholarly environments for neuroscience at Yale. I am committed to serving all faculty members with different needs, departments, and inter-departmental centers and institutes, with an overarching belief that productive interactions across diverse disciplines will help shape the future of academia.
Shiri Goren
Senior Lector II, Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations
DIVISION: Humanities
Serving in the inaugural FAS Senate has been an honor and a remarkably meaningful experience. I am excited at the possibility to serve another term, in which I will continue the Senate’s work on making Yale a more inclusive place for ALL faculty. As Co-Chair of the Committee on the Status, Pay and Conditions of Instructional Faculty, I have led the efforts to survey Yale’s non-ladder faculty. The resulting report, authored by the committee, exposed university leaders for the first time to the realities and the unique challenges this important faculty face. I will continue to serve as a voice for instructional faculty and to support the Yale’s administration in implementing more of the report’s recommendations. Yale still needs to develop more ways to promote the excellence of every faculty member by supporting scholarly creativity and pedagogical growth. And the university could do a better job at supporting women faculty. I will continue to push for much needed improvements in Yale’s parental leave policy, and work to alleviate issues that faculty with children experience. Fostering inclusion, very much like supporting and promoting diversity, does not lie solely with the university leadership. Much work still needs to be done to change the culture within the FAS faculty, and I see the Senate as a key player in leading these efforts.
Matthew Jacobson
Professor, African American Studies
DIVISION: Humanities
It has been my honor to serve on the FAS Senate since 2015 and to serve as Chair of the Senate in 2017-18. I have long been committed to amplifying faculty voice in matters of university governance, and to augmenting in every possible way our power as educators in defining and stewarding the institution’s core mission. I bring to this work nearly two decades’ experience as DUS, DGS, and Chair in my various units; and in 2014-15 I assembled “The Education Project,” an oral history archive of luminous educators discussing the challenges, discontents, and opportunities in America’s increasingly corporate and neoliberal university. I have devoted a lot of time, that is, to thinking about how to improve our educational institutions in general and Yale in particular. I am extremely proud of—and heartened by—the accomplishments of the FAS Senate in its first three years. It would be my honor to serve another term and to participate in carrying our collective project forward.
Ruth Koizim
Senior Lector and Language Program Director in French
DIVISION: Humanities
I have been honored to serve as a member of the FAS Senate since its inception. It has been a privilege to collaborate with colleagues from every division to ensure that the voice of the faculty is heard in the decision-making process at Yale.
Communication with the administration has been improved but we still have a lot of work to do. We must make sure that the expansion of Yale College takes place without any loss of quality in the education that we offer. We must continue to push for more equitable treatment of instructional and research faculty. We must strive to make our campus a model of inclusion and mutual respect. We must make sure that faculty play a central role in university governance.
I am or have been a member of the Yale College Expansion Committee (as Co-Chair), the Committee on the Status, Pay and Conditions of Instructional Faculty, the Peer Advisory Committee, the Standards and Procedures Committee and the Nominations and University Committees Committee. I hope that I have earned your confidence and that you will permit me to continue to represent you on the Senate.
Kristi Lockhart (Keil)
Senior Lecturer and Research Scientist, Psychology
DIVISION: Social Sciences
We need to refocus our attention on the core missions of the university: teaching and research and the central role of faculty and students in these missions. In recent years, I have watched our leading academic institutions become distracted from a focus on pedagogy and scholarship as the administrative and regulatory sectors grow and the core teaching and research facilities are inadequately supported. I will be a voice for better instructional spaces and technology and for greater support for non-ladder faculty teaching and scholarship. I will argue for greater respect and support for all faculty - so we can continue to teach rigorous, content-rich courses and conduct research that is motivated by true intellectual inquiry. I will seek ways to ensure that our students are provided the richest opportunities for acquiring knowledge and developing powerful analytical skills in order to fulfill our promise to them as a leading university.
Experience: I have been a full time lecturer in Psychology at Yale for the past twenty years; prior to that period, I was a senior lecturer at Cornell. Since coming to Yale, I have served on numerous university committees; and for 11 years, I was the associate head of Morse College. In addition, I currently am a member of the board of directors for the Connecticut Mental Health Center Foundation here in New Haven.
Mark Mooseker
Professor, Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology
DIVISION: Science and Engineering
When the Senate was established, there was considerable skepticism among the FAS faculty as to whether a solely advisory body would have significant impact on University governance and decision making. Fortunately this skepticism has proven to be ill founded as demonstrated on several fronts. The FAS Senate played a central role in convincing the administration to provide a more transparent budget, and was crucial in providing the impetus to revise and improve the standards and procedures for faculty conduct. It has played an effective advisory role to the FAS and Yale College administrations on the composition of their standing and ad hoc committees. Through the FAS Senate’s in depth survey of our “instructional” faculty, it has provided critical insight into issues of common concern and ideas for improving the status of this vital segment of the FAS faculty. At this juncture, many key issues raised by the Senate are ongoing and unresolved (e.g. how to maintain, and more importantly improve the overall excellence of the FAS faculty). It would be an honor to serve a second term on the FAS Senate in hopes of continuing to contribute to the its new and ongoing efforts to address concerns and recommendations put before the FAS Senate by the FAS faculty. These include those outlined in our numerous reports (available on the FAS Senate website) such as the status, pay and condition of non-ladder faculty, improved budget transparency, faculty diversity and inclusivity, faculty parental policies and the expansion of Yale College.
Nikhil Padmanabhan
Associate Professor, Physics and Astronomy (Tenured)
DIVISION: Science and Engineering
I am honored to be nominated for a position on the FAS Senate. I came to Yale in 2009. Since then, I have been tenured and I am an Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy. I strongly believe that the FAS Senate plays a crucial role by giving voice to the Faculty in helping shape the priorities of the University. If elected to the FAS Senate, I would plan on learning of my colleagues’ concerns about and aspirations for Yale, and would aim to represent these in the FAS Senate and to the administration.
Over the next two years, Science Hill will be revitalized by completion of the Yale Science Building. The Humanities will see the start of HGS renovation for a new humanities center. I am particularly interested in helping the faculty articulate its opinions on how best to use these new facilities. I am also interested in working on improving the diversity of the faculty and the mentoring of junior faculty members.
Ruzica Piskac
Assistant Professor, Computer Science
DIVISION: Science and Engineering
As a woman in STEM, it has always been one of my priorities to reach out to underserved communities. Yale has been a welcoming environment that prioritizes rigorous research, high quality teaching and interdisciplinary collaborations. I have been involved in mentoring Yale undergraduates as the Sophomore advisor for computer science. Additionally, I created opportunities for a number of students to participate as active members of the research community. In this way, I have first-hand experience on the impact of making Yale a welcoming environment to students with a diverse background. If elected to FAS Senate, I would also like to encourage more collaborations that allow faculty to effectively establish new connections and utilize Yale’s resources to further Yale’s mission of inclusivity and excellence.
Jonathan Reuning-Scherer
Senior Lecturer, Statistics and at the School of Forestry
& Environmental Studies
DIVISION: Social Sciences
In an era of ‘big data’ and increased reliance on analytics, I believe that complex discussions are enhanced by data analysis. After 25 years at Yale, twice as a student and for 15 years as a committed educator, I would relish the opportunity to bring my statistical expertise to issues facing Yale faculty. I had the privilege recently of being a guest member of the Yale Senate ad hoc committee on the status, pay and conditions of non-ladder faculty in FAS. Together, we gathered data from 238 non-ladder Yale faculty and were able to produce a comprehensive analysis of prevailing activities, attitudes, and compensation. The resulting document has been well received by the Yale administration, and we’re hopeful it can serve as a blueprint for improvement in the status of non-ladder faculty, both at Yale and at our peer institutions. Currently, I’m assisting Yale senators analyze a recent survey of faculty on research at Yale. I’ve also partnered for over a decade with the Center for Teaching and Learning to test new teaching technologies, and I’m passionate about Yale’s commitment to being a premier teaching institution.
Theresa Schenker
Senior Lector II and Language Program Director, German
DIVISION: Humanities
I am honored to be nominated for a position on the FAS Senate. As Language Program Director of German, I would embrace the opportunity to represent my colleagues across the departments – especially my non-ladder peers – on the FAS Senate. Yale is a wonderful place to work and it would be my pleasure to help move Yale forward in even more positive directions. This includes creating a more inclusive environment for all members of the Yale community, regardless of their status, gender, race or background. It would be my honor to speak on behalf of Yale’s non-ladder faculty and help the FAS Senate find solutions for the concerns we are facing that could enhance not only the experience of non-ladder faculty members but improve the working climate across departments at Yale.
Charles Schmuttenmaer
Professor, Chemistry
DIVISION: Science and Engineering
I am a Professor of Chemistry, and I began my independent career at Yale in 1994. I have served on the FAS Senate (FASS) for the last three years and it has been rewarding. Issues that are important to the faculty have been brought to the administration’s attention. A faculty senate provides a mechanism for a two-way dialog between the faculty and the administration and it is important to note that the administration has been quite supportive of the FASS and this relationship is one that we want to foster.
If reelected, I would enthusiastically advocate for key issues on behalf of my colleagues, broadly speaking, as defined by them. My role would be to represent them. I am happy to have been on the FASS committees for Diversity and Equity, on Standards and Procedures, for the Yale College Expansion, and on the committee that wrote the Report on the Status, Pay, and Conditions of Non-Ladder Faculty in FAS.
Ian Shapiro
Sterling Professor of Political Science and
Henry R. Luce Director of the MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies
DIVISION: Social Sciences
I have been at Yale since the 1970’s, first as a PhD and JD student, and as a faculty member since 1984. As a result, I have seen Yale from many angles and through four decades of far-reaching change. I ran for the FAS Senate three years ago out of a concern for some time that the quality and standing of Yale’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences have been declining, both in absolute terms and relative to our peers nationwide. Evidence that has come to light over the past three years, partly due to efforts of Senators and Senate committees, confirms that judgment. I believe that the most important contribution that the Senate can make is to ensure that the Administration and the Board of Trustees are, and remain committed to do whatever it takes to reverse this trend and restore Yale’s preeminence in the arts and sciences. If reelected to the FAS Senate for an additional term, that is where I will commit the bulk of my effort.
Karen Wynn
Professor, Psychology
DIVISION: Social Sciences
I would be honored to serve another term on the FAS Senate. My first term has given me a deep appreciation of many important issues facing the FAS faculty. Some of the work that most engaged me in my first term was developing recommendations to significantly improve Yale’s Parental Leave policy; advocating for more budgetary transparency from the Provost’s office (which now posts a detailed budget book for each fiscal year available via the Provost’s website); and (3) helping to ensure that Yale’s procedures in applying the newly-implemented Faculty Standards of Conduct embody full considerations of due process for both complainants and respondents. I remain committed to pushing for adequate resources and support for faculty - to increase our success in both the recruitment and the retention of a diverse body of outstanding scholars, to help departments achieve their teaching and research missions to the highest standards, and to enable all FAS faculty to continue to develop and realize their most productive selves.