The Faculty Senate met Monday afternoon to discuss a range of current issues and concerns facing faculty.

This included the removal of DEI language in Faculty Senate bylaws, creating potential guidelines for faculty on social media and updates surrounding the status of international faculty and students.

Bylaw changes

The senate approved two changes to the Faculty Senate Bylaws.

The first change was to Article V of the bylaws, which outlines the bylaw amendment process. Currently, all amendments to the bylaws must be proposed, reviewed for at least 28 days and approved by two-thirds of voting members in order to take effect.

The senate voted to add a paragraph to Article V allowing the executive council to amend bylaws without a review period and without senate vote, if the bylaw change does not impact the substance of the bylaws, like changing job titles, building and committee names or outdated language.

“We’re trying to be a little more efficient in terms of moving things along a month sooner, hopefully, with this process,” Charles Noble, president of the senate, said.

These changes will still be listed on the Faculty Senate website, and the amendment was passed with the agreement that senate members will also be personally notified of the changes.

Sen. Jason Brown and Sen. Matthew Pamental of the senate’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee proposed a name change to the committee, renaming it the Access and Engagement Committee. The change comes as a response to Tennessee’s new House Bill 923, the “Dismantling DEI Departments Act,” which prohibits certain public entities from maintaining or authorizing departments that are perceived to promote DEI.

“All mandates, policies, programs, activities, guidance, regulations, enforcement actions, consent orders, or other declarations of a department, agency, or other unit of state government, or an office, division, or department thereof, in existence prior to the effective date that are in conflict with this section of this act are void,” according to House Bill 923.

The senate approved the name change, bringing the committee to align with the university’s Division of Access and Engagement, Student Government Association’s Undergraduate Senate and other university organizations that have undergone the same name change.

The Faculty Senate’s actions mirror recent proposals in SGA’s Undergraduate Senate to revise DEI-related language, particularly in the naming of its Access and Engagement Committee. While some changes were approved, other proposals failed to advance, leaving certain language unchanged.

“I think it’s just become a bit of an obstacle, or unnecessary distraction,” Brown said. “There’s a long list of goals that our committee established, and the first one was just to check this one off because we could then move forward.”

The bylaw change was not heavily debated at Monday’s meeting, but it has been in the process of approval since the spring semester.

“I was surprised that there weren’t more questions today,” Brown said. “But I think it’s probably because we’ve talked about this at length now for over a year, and at this point we’re the outlier on campus.”

Faculty social media guidelines

Noble notified senators that the Faculty Affairs Committee and senate leadership were drafting faculty social media guidelines, prompting backlash from some senators at the meeting.

“I think the law is pretty clear that, in fact, we have a right to say what we want as a private citizen,” Sen. Michael Gilchrist, associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, said to Noble. “The state has a law saying that we’re allowed to do that, and the faculty handbook says that there’s a separation between the two.”

The drafting of the guidelines comes after controversy over UT professor Tamar Shirinian, who is facing termination due to an online comment made about the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

“I think it’s pretty clear from recent weeks and months that faculty could really use some more guidance on appropriate, inappropriate uses of their own social media, maybe for more professional uses and personal uses,” Noble said.

UT Provost John Zomchick also commented on the guidelines during his update to the senate.

“We’ve been talking about academic freedom and talking about freedom of speech,” Zomchick said. “I would love to see a discussion about faculty responsibility in terms of how we engage with the public.”

The guidelines are still being drafted and will be brought back up to the senate as progress is made.

Sen. Eva Cowell and Sen. David Butler, co-chairs of the Faculty Affairs Committee, sent a memorandum to Noble on Oct. 3 compiling questions concerning the policy on free speech and academic freedom. The letter also requested that the provost respond to the questions both at the executive council meeting and through written responses available for the entire senate.

The letter was addressed in the agenda for the Oct. 13 executive council meeting, but it did not receive a direct response at the faculty senate meeting.

“We have not responded to that,” Zomchick said. “We are reviewing it to see if we can respond at all.”

International students and faculty

William Vittetoe, director of UT’s International Student and Scholar Services, spoke to the senate about international student and employee processing with changing immigration and visa regulations in mind, specifically President Trump’s Sept. 19 proclamation, which went into effect on Sept. 21.

“The language does not specifically target higher education. It is very much focused on the tech sector,” Vittetoe said. “That said, it absolutely impacts us.”

The proclamation established a $100,000 fee for H1-B petitions filed on or after Sept. 21. Vittetoe says the department plans to ask for exemptions for any required fees on the grounds that employing faculty for the purpose of education is in the national interest. However, if the petition is denied, Vittetoe said UT does not intend to pay the fee.

“This is going to be a struggle. This is going to be difficult. It’s going to take more time, cost more money and not be very convenient,” Vittetoe said. “But I don’t think that it means that we’re not going to be able to use H1-B as the resource we need it to be.”

International students applying to UT, Vittetoe said, will have their university applications processed, apply for a visa and have their admission deferred for a year before coming to campus due to backlogs in the visa process in certain countries.

“There are certain embassies that are dealing with tremendous backlogs,” Vittetoe said. “I doubt that backlog is going to go away.”

Vittetoe encouraged senators to direct students and faculty members to the International Student and Scholar Services if they have inquiries.

The next Faculty Senate meeting will be held on Monday, Nov. 17.