The Academic Senate met for the first time in its new composition
At the constituent session, the Chairmanship was elected and the Senate committees were appointed. The reform of doctoral studies was also discussed.
The Academic Senate discussed application for familiarization with regulations
It also approved the abolition of the PhD programme in Greek Studies, renegotiated the status of grant researchers and set up a special committee to investigate the case of Mgr. Horský.
At its meeting on 14 March 2022, the Academic Senate of the MU Faculty of Arts approved the intention to cancel the doctoral study program in Greek Studies, which will be closed after the reduction of the workload of doc. Kulhánková at the Department of Classical Studies, it found itself in a situation in which it was impossible to obtain a supervisor for it.
The Senate took note of the report of the Dean in spe doc. Radová that prof. Knoz would not take up his position as Vice-Dean until 1 June 2022, as until then he is a member of the National Accreditation Office, which is incompatible with the position of the Vice-Dean of the Faculty. Until then, doc. Radová will be in charge of prof. Knoz's agenda herself.
The proposal of doc. Zbíral to establish a special senate committee for science, which would act as the senate counterpart of the dean's scientific committee, following the model of the economic committee, was approved. Doc. Zbíral will elaborate on the proposal in more detail and approach potential candidates by the next meeting.
The senators were also introduced to the concept of an application in the IS MU that would be used to familiarize employees with regulations. Many expressed dissatisfaction with its proposed design and would welcome modifications to make the process more user-friendly and meaningful. The Administrative Committee was tasked with the next steps in this matter.
The issue of the status of professional staff employed on research projects, who are commonly classified as non-academics and are thus disadvantaged, inter alia, in their career progression, returned to the agenda. The Legislative Committee confirmed that academic positions must be competitive, but there are ways to avoid this in justified cases. The discussion highlighted the need for a central solution for the whole faculty. The Legislative Committee will prepare its options for the next session.
The question of the legislative anchoring of the scholarship committee was closed, and the Senate had instructed the incoming leadership to refine it.
The final item on the agenda was the farewell of the senators to the current leadership.
The "miscellaneous" section dealt mainly with the case of Mgr. Horský, who had addressed the Senate to ensure that effective measures were taken to prevent similar administrative and communication errors related to his case in the future. A special committee, which had been set up temporarily for that purpose, had been instructed to investigate the situation.
At the very end of the meeting, a statement was approved on the current situation linked to the war in Ukraine:
The AS FF MU expresses its support for MU's actions in connection with the war in Ukraine and in this context calls for systematic support for Ukrainian academics and students beyond the quorum adopted by the MU Rector. At the same time, the Senate rejects the principle of collective guilt and expresses solidarity with Russian and Belarusian academics and students protesting against the war in Ukraine and calls for finding ways to support and include them in the aid.
The detailed course of the meeting of the Senate is recorded in the minutes.
The next standard meeting of the Senate will be held on 25 April 2022.
