{"id":11131,"date":"2026-10-05T20:17:33","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T20:17:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/?p=11131"},"modified":"2026-10-05T20:17:34","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T20:17:34","slug":"troys-faculty-senate-approved-to-continue-under-new-state-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/2026\/10\/05\/troys-faculty-senate-approved-to-continue-under-new-state-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Troy’s Faculty Senate approved to continue under new state law"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

TROY, Ala. (TROJANVISION<\/a>) \u2014 Troy\u2019s Board of Trustees ratified the continuation of the Faculty Senate on Sep. 12.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the Alabama legislature passed Alabama Act 20<\/a>2<\/a>6-432<\/a>, faculty senates at public universities across the state had to be reviewed and ratified by their governing body. Troy\u2019s Faculty Senate serves as an advisory body to the administration, offering the faculty’s perspective on issues present on college campuses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Faculty Senate is an elected body comprised of elected faculty members from across the university,\u201d said Dr. Lenetra Jefferson, Troy\u2019s Faculty Senate President. \u201cIt provides the faculty with a voice that can help support both academically and, on the student-supportive side, with the university.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe not only share governance here at the university, but we also try to be supportive of the university community as well. We are not the final decision-making body at the university in any way, shape or form, but we’re kind of an advisory council to the administration, and we appreciate that we do have this working role with administration here at the university.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some colleges across the state, like South Alabama and Jacksonville State, have voted to discontinue their faculty senates. Meanwhile, Troy\u2019s Board of Trustees voted unanimously to keep the working relationship between the administration and the Faculty Senate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One administrator looks forward to continuing to work with the Faculty Senate and said he sees the importance of keeping the elected body on Troy\u2019s campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think you have to have the faculty’s voice and input to be able to manage the university properly because they’re the front lines; they’re the ones dealing with our students every day, and if you don’t have that communication and feedback then I think it’s very difficult to do the work of the university whether you’re an administrator, staff member or anyone else,\u201d said Dr. Judson Edwards, the Senior Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs and interim Provost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TOP STORIES: Sorrell College of Business cuts the ribbon on its corporate partnership program<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have a lot of respect for what the Faculty Senate does. We’re all just trying to work together to help students, and it shows Troy has done our best to keep our focus on what it should be, and that’s the student.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While offering the faculty\u2019s advice on topics like AI in the classroom, the Faculty Senate also provides the staff with training for different situations it might face on campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSome of the things we did were to provide active shooter training for faculty and staff throughout the campus,\u201d Jefferson said. \u201cWe had it provided by our chief of police. Our faculty welfare committee coordinated that and provided that as a service to our faculty and staff colleagues.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The continuation also comes almost a year before Chancellor Dr. Jack Hawkins, Jr.’s retirement. Edwards believes the positive relationship between the senate and administration will be a positive for any potential new chancellor looking to fill the role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHaving regular communication and trying to address issues as they come up as we go into having a new chancellor, I think it’s just going to help us attract the best chancellor that we can because we do have such a positive relationship with the Faculty Senate,\u201d Edwards said. \u201cIf you’re a new chancellor, you want to have a good working relationship with the faculty.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some in the Faculty Senate encourage others to join as it offers insight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI highly encourage other faculty to get involved with Faculty Senate because I have felt like I’ve learned a lot being a part of this process,\u201d said Professor Christopher Stagl, the chair for the policy and procedure committee with the Faculty Senate. \u201cI do look forward to the continued years of partnership and relationship with our administration and board moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For faculty interested in joining the Faculty Senate or wanting to know more about the organization, contact Dr. Jefferson for more information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TROY, Ala. (TROJANVISION) \u2014 Troy\u2019s Board of Trustees ratified the continuation of the Faculty Senate on Sep. 12.<\/p>\n

After the Alabama legislature passed Alabama Act 2026-432, faculty senates at public universities across the state had to be reviewed and ratified by their governing body. Troy\u2019s Faculty Senate serves as an advisory body to the administration,…<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":11153,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1127],"tags":[3426,175,574,1858,3113,3257,3428,3429,3422,3346,2228,2227,2225,2224,2226,753,3427,51,3423,45,177,2602],"topics":[17],"class_list":["post-11131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-news","tag-alabama-law","tag-board-of-trustees","tag-chris-stagl","tag-chris-stagl-troy-university","tag-dr-judson-edwards","tag-dr-judson-edwards-troy-university","tag-dr-lenetra-jefferson","tag-dr-lenetra-jefferson-troy-university","tag-faculty-senate","tag-jimmy-nichols","tag-jimmy-nichols-anchor","tag-jimmy-nichols-reporter","tag-jimmy-nichols-troy-trojanvision-news","tag-jimmy-nichols-troy-university","tag-jimmy-nichols-tv","tag-judson-edwards","tag-lenetra-jefferson","tag-troy","tag-troy-faculty-senate","tag-troy-university","tag-troy-university-board-of-trustees","tag-troy-university-chris-stagl","topics-troy-campus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11131"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11152,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11131\/revisions\/11152"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11131"},{"taxonomy":"topics","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topics?post=11131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}