2023/24 FAS-SEAS Senate Executive Council
Chair: Meg Urry, Isreal Munson Professor of Physics and Astronomy
Deputy Chair: Rebecca Toseland, Senior Lecturer, Department of Economics
Committee members:
Alessandro Gomez, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Yale University Faculty of Engineering
Valerie Horsley, Maxine F. Singer Professor of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology; Associate Professor of Dermatology
Greta La Fleur, Associate Professor of American Studies and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies
Mark Solomon, Professor of Biophysics and Biochemistry
Jing Yan, Assistant Professor, Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology
The Executive Council calls meetings, determines the agenda of the FAS-SEAS Senate, appoints committees to assist with the FAS-SEAS SENATE’s work, and organizes elections in consultation with the elections and nominations committee. The Executive Council serves as liaison to the administration, and has the power to act on behalf of the Senate in matters arising between meetings. It also acts as the Senate’s By-laws Committee, examining and reviewing Senate rules, procedures, and by-laws at least once per year, and recommending changes to the full Senate. The Executive Council meets approximately once per month, roughly two weeks in advance of Senate meetings, though may meet more often or at other times as necessary.
The Executive Council includes seven members of the FAS-SEAS, six of whom are tenured faculty members (two from each of the four divisions) and one of whom is an untenured or non-ladder faculty member.
The chair of the Executive Council runs the meetings of the Senate and is an ex officio member of all the Senate’s committees. The secretary/deputy chair prepares minutes of meetings, made available in electronic form for all members of the FAS-SEAS SENATE. If the chair is absent, the secretary/deputy chair assumes the duties of the chair.
The 25 member-elected Senate represents faculty from all ranks and divisions within the Faculty of Arts and Science and SEAS at Yale. 2015-2016 marked the Senate’s inaugural year as the chief representative and voice for the Yale FAS. While many universities have maintained faculty senates for many decades, the FAS-SEAS Senate is a new contribution to faculty governance at Yale. The Senate was created in order to provide a more organized voice for the FAS and SEAS faculty, to highlight and investigate issues of FAS and SEAS concern, and to foster greater communication between the members of the FAS and SEAS, and the Yale administration.