Senate Leadership | Past Chairs | Senate Staff Directory

Senate Leadership

Chair

Shane White
Professor
Dentistry
swhite@senate.ucla.edu
310-825-3851

Summary of Service

SENATE SERVICE

Vice-chair and chair of the Academic Senate of the University of California, 2016-18. Vice chair & chair of the University Committee on Planning and Budget (UCPB), 2014-16; the University Committee on Faculty Welfare (UCFW), 2008-10; UCFW's Task Force on Investment and Retirement (TFIR), 2011-13. Chair, UC Non-Discrimination in Health Care Task Force, 2019. Ex-offico membership of all systemewide standing committees, 2016-18. Representative UCLA Senate service includes: Faculty Welfare Committee (FWC) 2004-2011, four-time chair; Executive Board 2007-09; CPB 2011-14; CAP 2018-19. Representative UCLA School of Dentistry Service includes chair of APA and MILA promotion committees, and the Curriculum Committee.

ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICE

Member: UCOP Executive Budget Committee 2018-19; President Napolitano’s Advisory Group (PAG) 2018; Task Force on Health Sciences Conflict of Interest Policy 2017-18; UC Budget Framework Initiative (BFI) Workgroup (BFI) 2016-18; Systemwide Library & Scholarly Information Advisory Committee (SLASIAC), 2016-18; Innovative Learning Technology Initiative (ILTI) Steering Committee, 2016-18; Academic Planning Council (APC) 2015-18; Technology Transfer Advisory Committee (TTAC) 2014-16; UC Education Abroad Program (UCEAP) Governing Committee 2014-16. UCLA School of Dentistry Section of Endodontics, chair 2002-04.

SERVICE TO THE UNIVERSITY

Faculty Representative to the Board of Regents, 2016-18; member of Academic & Student Affairs Committee, Compliance & Audit Committee, National Laboratories Subcommittee, Finance and Capital Strategies Committee, Public Engagement and Development Committee, Investments Subcommittee. Senate representative to President Yudof's 2009-2010 Task Force on Post-Employment Benefits (PEB), President Napolitano's 2015-16 Retirement Options Task Force (ROTF), and President Napolitano’s 2018 Retiree Health Working Group. Vice chair and chair of the UC Retirement System Advisory Board (UCRSAB), 2011-15. Service separately provided to institutions of The State of California.

STATEMENT

Challenging times place a premium on knowledge of the institutional environment, its values, history, policy and process. UCLA’s challenges are the Senate’s challenges. A recently completed a term as UC systemwide Senate chair has given me the necessary insights and relationships to help optimally position UCLA in a time of leadership transition, future budgetary uncertainty, and controversy. The Senate must effectively provide its unequaled expertise and experience to the administration. While shared governance is a distinctive and successful part of UCLA culture, it must be actively and collegially engaged with transparency, through consensus-building, and with the maintenance of trust. To maximize institutional quality and advancement, the campus must be united. The chair and vice chair must facilitate and promote the incredible talents of the entire Senate body to best address the future. Since being a 4-time UCLA Faculty Welfare chair in the 2000s, I have been one of the UC Senate’s leading voices on faculty welfare and budgetary issues – our lifeblood. Service on UCLA’s FWC, CPB, CAP, Assembly, and its Executive Board, etc., have provided broad institutional knowledge. As systemwide Senate chair, I worked successfully to achieve the largest increase to the salary scales in a quarter century; maintain threatened active and retiree benefits; increase faculty diversity; improve admissions processes through the work of BOARS; and provide stability during crisis. As Senate chair and Faculty Representative to the Board of Regents, I engaged the Board and the leaders of the State, linking our institution to the public good. I am committed to working in partnership with the administration to make difficult strategic decisions to improve access and increase quality in our teaching, research and service. UCLA is the Nation’s preeminent public research university campus; my feet are firmly planted on UCLA’s ground as a teacher, scholar, servant, and graduate.

Vice Chair/Chair-Elect

Summary of Service

SENATE SERVICE

Committee on Library, 2001 – 2004; Committee on Diversity and Equal Opportunity, 2004 – 2007 (Chair, 2005-2007); University Committee on Affirmative Action and Diversity, 2005-2007; Alternate UCLA representative, University of California Academic Assembly, 2006 – 2007; UCLA representative, University of California Academic Assembly, 2007-2011; Committee on Library and Scholarly Communication, 2011-2014 (Chair, 2013-2014); Committee on Academic Freedom, 2014-2017 (Chair, 2015-2017); University of California Committee on Academic Freedom, 2015-2017; Committee on Charges, 2017-2020 (Chair, 2018-2020). Academic Senate Service Award, 2019 (inaugural award).

ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICE

Curriculum Committee, Division of Head and Neck Surgery, 1995-2003; Appointments and Promotions Committee, Department of Head and Neck Surgery, since 1997; Space Policy Task Force, UCLA School of Medicine, 2013; Head and Neck Chair Search Committee, UCLA School of Medicine, 2017; Executive Review Committee, Department of Head and Neck Surgery, since 2018; Strategic Planning Committee, Department of Head and Neck Surgery, 2018; Executive Advisory Committee, Department of Head and Neck Surgery, since 2018; various faculty search and promotion committees.

SERVICE TO THE UNIVERSITY

Chancellor’s Advisory Group on Diversity, 2005-2007; Grievance Advisory Committee, 2018-2020.

STATEMENT

In these days of cascading crises and uncertainty of every kind, it is essential that faculty remain actively involved in both the University’s short-term responses to emergent problems and in longer-term planning efforts.  Through my many years of Senate service I have come to appreciate the importance of shared governance, but also the fragility of our role in governance.  Particularly in times of crisis, our rights and responsibilities can easily be undermined, and our voice diminished amid the press of problems and the need for timely action. As Vice-Chair/Chair Elect, I will do my best to protect our voice in campus governance, in belief that increased input from faculty can only enhance the University’s ability to address the challenges that confront us. 

Immediate Past Chair

Michael Meranze
Professor
History
mmeranze@senate.ucla.edu
310-825-3851

Summary of Service

SENATE SERVICE

Academic Senate Service: Member Faculty Executive Committee, College of Letters and Sciences (2008-2011); Chair, Faculty Executive Committee, College of Letters and Sciences (2011-2013); Member, Council of Faculty Chairs (2011-2013); Member, Gold Shield Faculty Prize (2012); Member Executive Board (2014-2016); Member Council on Planning and Budget (2016-2017); Academic Senate Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect, 2018-2019. 

ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICE

Member, Graduate Affairs Committee (2006-2007); Member, Chair’s Advisory Committee (2007-2009); Member, Academic Personnel Committee (2009-2011, 2014-2016); Member Undergraduate Affairs Committee, 2014-2015; Chair, Graduate Awards Committee (2010-2011); Chair, By- Laws Committee, 2014-2016; Member Graduate Admissions Committee, 2017-18; various Promotion Committees.

SERVICE TO THE UNIVERSITY

Member, UCLA Center for 17th and 18th Century Studies Faculty Advisory Committee (2006-2011, 2016-2017); UCLA Center for 17th and 18th Century Studies, Selection of Ahmanson-Getty Fellows (2007-2008); Member, UCLA Center for 17th and 18th Century Studies, Fellowship Committee; Member Chancellor's Technology Development Corporation/Group Oversight Committee, 2016-2018.

STATEMENT

I think it essential to the campus’s future that faculty concerns and knowledge be central to UCLA’s current planning efforts. UCLA is facing a series of critical challenges. Over the next several years, the campus will be implementing new strategic plans for our development and likely witnessing changes in administrative leadership. As one of the world’s great research universities, UCLA will have to confront the uncertain status of Federal funding for research at the same time that it needs to secure and expand its research infrastructure. UCLA will also have to deepen our commitment to the intellectual futures of an increasingly diverse student body and State of California while responding to increasing student demands. These challenges raise fundamental material questions concerning faculty size, student enrollment, and physical plant. They also demand a strong vision that places the academic life of the campus and the multiple responsibilities of the faculty—in teaching, research, and service—at the heart of the way that the UCLA community debates its future and represents itself to the wider community. If the University is going to flourish in the future, it can only be by building upon the tremendous teaching and research energies that lie at the heart of UCLA’s educational project. Having served as Chair of the College of Arts and Sciences FEC, and a member of the Divisional Executive Board and the Council on Planning and Budget, I have a keen appreciation of the tremendous capacities of our diverse and distinguished faculty. I have worked with faculty across the campus in the College of Letters and Sciences and in the professional schools. I have also worked with the leadership of the systemwide Academic Senate. During the last decade I have researched and written on UC’s transformations and am working on a co-authored book on the history of UC since the financial crisis. UC has a long and distinguished history of shared governance; it is our responsibility to make certain that that tradition continues and is not swept aside in the interests of superficial efficiencies. As Vice-Chair and subsequently Chair, I will work to ensure that the faculty’s authority over the educational process and our consultative roles in administrative and budgetary matters are brought to bear forcefully on planning for the campus’ future. I would like to serve because of my conviction that the University operates best when the faculty’s considered voice has genuine impact on university governance.

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