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 the status of researchers or the calculation of the scholarship for excellent results
He also expressed concern about the dissolution of the Memorial Association in the Russian Federation and addressed the new procedure for appointing student representatives to programme boards.
At its meeting on 31 January 2022, the Academic Senate of the FA MU once again looked back at the outcome of the dean election. Prof. Foletti and Prof. Macháček emphasised the continuity of the VIZE22 initiative and its points of contact with the winning team's programme. At the same time, they pointed out the importance of the Academic Senate as a controlling body and as a unifying platform for a relatively equally divided academic community.
The newly prepared process of electing student representatives to the programme boards was discussed. Newly, students of a given programme should elect their representatives by electronic elections in IS. The collection of nominations and the organization of e-elections will probably remain the responsibility of the student chamber, but the details of the process are still being worked out at the university-wide level.
The status of research staff, who are employed on research projects and are normally classified as non-academics, although the internal salary regulations allow for the establishment of academic research positions, was again on the agenda. Such staff are then disadvantaged, for example, by not being represented in the Academic Senate and, above all, the non-academic position is a barrier to their career progression. The key to the problem appears to be the need to put academic positions out to tender, which often goes against the grant application itself, which assumes a specific team of experts. Possible solutions to the situation will be addressed by the Legislative Committee in cooperation with the Personnel Office and the topic will be discussed in more detail at the next Senate meeting.
The Student Chamber expressed concern about whether students in minor fields who do not reach the required percentile of success are being disadvantaged in the calculation of scholarships for excellent results. Vice Dean Šaur clarified that this is kept in mind in the scholarship allocation process and such students receive the scholarship through manual allocation.
The possibility of formally establishing a scholarship committee, which has been in place for a long time but is only vaguely specified in the regulations, was also discussed.
On the initiative of Prof. Foletti, a resolution was adopted on the Senate's position on the recent dissolution of the Memorial Association in the Russian Federation:
The Academic Senate of the Faculty of Arts MU expresses its concern over the dissolution of the Memorial Association, which records the crimes of the Stalinist regime and the Soviet regime in general, in the Russian Federation and hereby declares its support for all members of this institution as well as its other supporters and invites the AS MU to express its opinion on this issue as well.
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 14 March 2022.
