Senate chairman Vincent Novara
When the University Senate concludes its annual transition meeting later today, it will have someone new leading the way.
Vincent Novara, a university curator chosen as chair-elect a year ago, will replace outgoing chairwoman Martha Nell Smith, an English professor.
Novara, 42, is a three-year senate member. The university alumnus served twice on the Senate Executive Committee, the body’s most powerful subcommittee, and has tackled issues such as sexual harassment and diversity.
As a member of the university’s library faculty and a certified archivist, Novara builds arts-related collections, including an exhibition last semester on composer John Cage.
Novara, who graduated with degrees in musical performance, specializing in percussion, said he was drawn to shared governance by the collaborative atmosphere among library faculty.
“In the libraries, we have a very strong service culture,” he said. “It’s pretty much a shared trade by most all of us on the library faculty. As long as I’ve been professionally active, it’s all I’ve ever known.”
He added he’s also very politically active in his personal life.
“It was just something I was naturally drawn to,” he said.
Stephen Henry, a music librarian in the Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library, said Novara is conscientious and professional.
“He’s a very collaborative colleague,” said Henry, who’s worked with Novara since 2007. “He’s on the ball, organized, gets the job done. He’s very easy to work with.”
As both a former student and current faculty member, Novara has a unique range of experiences that will serve him particularly well as chairman, said Senate Director Reka Montfort.
“Vin has been at the university for quite some time,” Montfort said. “He has a pretty good perspective from both the student and faculty member-side of being on this campus, which I think gives him a different insight than most of our past senate chairs.”
Novara spent the past year preparing for his chair position, which he said gives him a strong background that will make him a better leader. It was “great training,” Montfort said.
Still, some aspects of Novara’s job will inevitably change as chairman, he said. For instance, he said he’ll take on more “one-on-one” advocacy duties and lose the ability to vote.
“Your voice is really meant more to facilitate discussion, as opposed to guide discussion,” Novara said.
Next year, along with chairing monthly meetings of the executive committee, he’ll organize the agendas for each of the full senate’s 10 meetings. He’ll also be confronted with a long list of leftover legislation from this year.
These items include implementation of a task force’s recommendations on the treatment of non-tenure-track faculty, evidentiary standards in the Code of Student Conduct and issues of appointment, promotion and rank.
“We only have 18 hours of [senate] meetings and 18 hours of SEC meetings, which is not a tremendous amount of time to get the work done that we need to accomplish,” he said.
As Novara takes on his new position, a key goal, he said, is to increase the body’s visibility and to make more people on the campus aware of its role and responsibilities.
“I think that’s something we could certainly improve upon,” he said. “Not only just our visibility, but increasing people’s faith in what the senate can do, the voice that the senate can have on campus. It would be nice to see people believe in the process, as well as be aware of it.”
