E-mail conversation with Senator Wills
Mailbag_Message_ID 21
Message_ID
<BEA32338E8EDDD4AAB3C6A70586819DC0793556B@CH1PRD0402MB116.namprd04.prod.outlook.com>
From
"Fessler, Susanna" <sfessler@albany.edu>
Date
2012-01-27 15:10:24+00:00
To
Senate Executive Committee <SEC@albany.edu>
Subject
E-mail conversation with Senator Wills
SEC Colleagues,
In his e-mail of this morning, Senator Wills wrote in part:
****************
Please communicate to the SEC the following explanation of my actions prior to and during the last meeting:
I considered that the matter of the deactivations was something that needed to be discussed but I felt that a resolution was premature given my
absence from previous meetings and not having a good sense of whether the Senate wished to take up the issue.
I understood your e-mail responses to my request to include the matter as an agenda item to be an unacceptable and obstructionist maneuver,
on the basis of the substance of the questions I was raising, to preempt discussion of them, in violation of the broad terms of the Senate
mandate in the Faculty By-Laws. If indeed the requirement of an actionable item has become the norm, I believe that to make that norm
absolute also violates the By-Laws. There should be occasions when a discussion can take place without an actionable item. The By-Laws
precisely keep that option open, and prevent the Chair or the SEC from preempting discussion, or from making a biased determination
concerning the substance of a matter to be discussed.
***************
Because Senator Wills explicitly asked me in an e-mail on November 28 th not to discuss the matter with the Executive Committee, you all
have not seen my e-mail responses. However, I feel that disclosure of those e-mails to the SEC at this point is warranted, if I am to be accused
of making an “unacceptable and obstructionist maneuver.” Attached is that e-mail thread, and the final SEC response, which you all seen
already. Please treat them as confidential. The final exchange is between myself and the parliamentarian, Joshua Bolin, after I consulted him
about the proper way to proceed.
I hope this clarifies things a little. For the moment, this is not an SEC action item or a Senate action item. However, should it become one in
some form, I thought some background information would be helpful.
Susanna
Susanna Fessler
Professor
East Asian Studies Department
Humanities 210
University at Albany
Albany, NY 12222
518-442-4119 (voice)
518-442-4118 (facsimile)
http://www.albany.edu/eas/fessler. s html
