The same day Patricia Hartzell adjourned her final faculty senate meeting as chairwoman, the senate elected Marty Ytreberg and Randall Teal into senate leadership.
Ytreberg, previous vice chairman, accepted the position of faculty senate chairman for the 2014-2015 academic year as the sole nominee Tuesday.
Teal was out of town, but accepted his vice chairman selection via email.
“It’s an honor,” Ytreberg said. “I’m excited for what we’re going to accomplish next year in senate, but I also feel a little apprehensive because it’s a big responsibility and a lot of work.”
Ytreberg has served on senate for two years representing the College of Science. He said his experience as vice chairman under Hartzell has prepared him for his new position.
“I’ve developed good working relationships with the president, the provost, the vice president for research, Keith Ickes and other people like that,” Ytreberg said. “I’ve been able to attend meetings like the president’s roundtable discussion as well as the breakfast for progress — events like that where I’m starting to learn more about the inner workings of the university and the challenges that are facing us and how we might be able to solve them.”
Hartzell said she appreciated the hard work Ytreberg put into the senate during the last year, and credits part of its success to his contributions.
“I wanted to thank also — in addition to other people such as Gail (Eckwright) and Ann (Thompson) and the senators — the other chair, Marty Ytreberg,” Hartzell said. “(He’s) been a constant source of good ideas and he has gently corrected me when I needed some re-steering … he also knows Robert’s Rules much better than I do.”
Ytreberg said while there are going to be many projects to keep the senate busy in the coming year, one initiative he wants to tackle is strengthening UI’s dual career services policy, which helps facilitate employment opportunities for the spouses of those hired by UI.
“I know that when faculty and staff are hired, we’re sort of giving their partners a chance to also have at least temporary employment that could potentially transfer into something long term,” Ytreberg said. “We have a policy on the books right now but it’s not applied uniformly and it’s sort of left up to the discussion of the administration. So someth
ing I’d like to do is make it something we just do.”
Ytreberg said more inclusive dual career accommodations is essential in recruiting faculty and staff who may not otherwise consider Moscow as their future place of employment.
“Living in a small town like Moscow — the Moscow-Pullman area — I think if we want to attract high quality faculty and staff we need to be willing to have a policy like that to attract the best candidates,” Ytreberg said.
Amber Emery can be reached at [email protected]
