HGSE Faculty Votes in ‘Near-Unanimous Decision’ to Create Faculty Senate

The Harvard Graduate School of Education faculty voted on Monday to take the first steps toward establishing a University-wide faculty senate.

The decision makes HGSE the fifth faculty division to support the creation of a faculty senate planning body, following the Harvard School of Public Health, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Graduate School of Design, and Divinity School.

According to an April memo obtained by the Crimson, 18 Harvard professors proposed a University-wide faculty senate to increase faculty perspectives in Harvard’s governance “amid a year of turmoil” and “growing skepticism” towards the University’s top governing boards.

HGSE professor Julie A. Reuben — who introduced the planning body resolution at the Ed School — wrote to The Crimson that the “HGSE faculty just voted overwhelmingly to join the planning process for a university-wide Faculty Senate.”

“​​There is strong sentiment among HGSE faculty that a well-designed faculty senate can play a constructive role in university affairs,” she wrote. “We hope that the creation of a Faculty Senate will provide a mechanism for faculty to consider and express their views on major issues that impact the University as a whole.”

HGSE professor Ebony N. Bridwell-Mitchell, who attended the HGSE meeting, said in an interview with The Crimson that she was struck by the “consensus” in the room.

“There was no contention — in my recollection — during the vote,” Bridwell-Mitchell said.

The resolution allows HGSE to select three delegates for the faculty senate planning committee to join 12 representatives from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, four from Harvard Medical School, and three from each of the other schools.

Bridwell-Mitchell said the nomination and election process for the HGSE delegates will proceed “fairly quickly” and is likely to conclude by “the end of the semester, certainly before the middle of next spring.”

“I am proud of what the Ed school faculty have decided in what was almost a near unanimous decision to put forward members to the planning committee,” Bridwell-Mitchell said.

—Staff writer Kelly A. Olmos contributed reporting.

—Staff writer Kenith W. Taukolo can be reached at kenith.taukolo@thecrimson.com.