Professors John Pijanowski and Samantha Robinson have begun their terms as chairs of the Faculty Senate and Campus Faculty, respectively.

Pijanowski has been elected the chair of the Faculty Senate at the U of A for the 2023-24 academic year. Pijanowski is a professor of educational leadership who has previously served as a Fulbright Scholar, president of the Teaching Academy, co-director of the Wally Cordes Center for Teaching and Faculty Support Services and a Faculty Affairs Fellow in the Provost's Office.

This will be his second time chairing the Faculty Senate (2016-17). Currently Pijanowski is the principal investigator, and original creator, of the IMPACT Arkansas Principal Fellowship program, which is entering its 10th year and has helped develop leadership capacity in more than half the high-poverty school districts in the state.

Robinson has been elected chair of the Campus Faculty and chair-elect Faculty Senate for the 2023-24 academic year. Robinson is the director of data science initiatives for Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences and is the Julia A. Hicks Endowed Professor in Mathematics. She is a teaching associate professor and vice chair of the Department of Mathematical Sciences.

She currently serves as a statistical consultant with the U of A for Medical Sciences' Northwest Arkansas campus as well as a senior applications system analyst consulting with the Department of Family and Preventative Medicine Community Research group at UAMS. While she has previously served as a Faculty Affairs Fellow in the Provost's Office and has been actively involved in Faculty Senate for several years, this will be her first time chairing the Campus Faculty.

The Executive Committee of the Faculty Senate will be elected at the first meeting of the Faculty Senate, which will be at 3:30 p.m. Sept. 13 in White Engineering Hall 209. Current members of the Executive Committee include:

Officers

• Chair — John Pijanowski, College of Education and Health Professions

• Vice-Chair — Laurie Apple, Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences

• Secretary — Adnan Ali Khalaf Alrubaye, Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

• Parliamentarian — Robert Brady, Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences

• Outgoing Chair — Stephen Caldwell, Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences

• Chair-Elect — Samantha Robinson, Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences

• Vice-Chair-Elect — Jeremy Beaulieu, Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences

About the Faculty Senate: The Faculty Senate is the representative body of the University of Arkansas faculty and holds authority as given in the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees Policy 810.1. The Faculty Senate exercises the general legislative powers of the faculty and has sole jurisdiction over admission requirements; transfer of credits; withdrawals; academic honesty; scholastic probation, suspension, and dismissal; curriculum and courses; degrees and degree requirements; awarding of academic honors; and recommendations to the board of trustees for honorary degrees. The faculty may also make recommendations on any institutional matter of faculty concern such as: policies regarding faculty status, including appointments, promotions, granting of tenure, retirement, nonreappointment, and dismissal; policies affecting the general welfare, working conditions, and the services performed by and for the faculty; and policies relating to academic and professional research and other scholarly and creative activities.

About the University of Arkansas: As Arkansas' flagship institution, the U of A provides an internationally competitive education in more than 200 academic programs. Founded in 1871, the U of A contributes more than $2.2 billion to Arkansas' economy through the teaching of new knowledge and skills, entrepreneurship and job development, discovery through research and creative activity while also providing training for professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the U of A among the top 3% of U.S. colleges and universities with the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the U of A among the top public universities in the nation. See how the U of A works to build a better world at Arkansas Research News.