Ohio University’s Faculty Senate said farewell to the current chair Monday but welcomed two familiar faces back to its executive board.
In a unanimous vote, Elizabeth Sayrs was elected as chair to replace outgoing-chair Joe McLaughlin, who is required by the faculty handbook to step down and take a mandatory one-year leave after serving six years in the senate.
“I am so excited for Elizabeth,” said McLaughlin, who served three years as chair and another three as a senator. “I have worked with her for three years and know she is a terrific person to run the senate.”
Sayrs, a music professor who came to OU in 2004, has already served three years on Faculty Senate, including one year as vice-chair.
Joining Sayrs on the executive board will be Beth Quitslund as secretary and David Thomas as vice-chair.
Quitslund is an undergraduate director in the English department who joined OU staff in 1999 and specializes in British Renaissance literature. She will be serving her fourth year on the senate and second as secretary.
“Meetings sometimes last longer than they should, but I look forward to making what we (do) here readily available to the community,” Quitslund said.
Thomas, a film professor, is familiar with Faculty Senate after first serving in the 1980s and since serving two terms as secretary — one term as vice-chair and another term as chair, he said.
“I work in such a way as to let me work within the system to effect positive change, and I’ve done that most of my life,” Thomas said.
Thomas also initially helped bring faculty representatives to the Board of Trustees, he said.
Sayrs will begin leading Faculty Senate when it convenes June 4, McLaughlin said.
Additionally, about 20 new senators began their terms, and two resolutions were passed Monday. The first resolution called for multiyear contracts for clinical medicine faculty, and the second resolution called for a change in catalog language on experiential learning on the semester calendar.
— Brian Vadakin contributed to this report.
af234909@ohiou.edu
