I’m Anne Parsons, an Associate Professor at UNC Greensboro at UNC Greensboro in the History Department and am affiliated with Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. As a public historian, I study history and public policy, museums, and public memory. In my blog The Senate Historian, I dig into the past of the UNCG Faculty Senate so that we can learn from them, the good and the bad. My main audience is the Faculty Senate, perhaps my most narrow and obscure audience ever.

I write this blog so that we use insights from the past to help us be change-makers today, adapting our university to a new digital, educational, political, and financial environment. In talking with my fellow senators, I have found that many of us are change-makers, contrary to the traditional notion of Faculty Senates. I have used the UNCG Senate Archives to navigate what we are facing and what to do and will make posts in the Spring 2024 semester, the end of my first term as Senator.

I was inspired to become a Senator by Dr. Charles Johnson, a leader in North Carolina University’s faculty senate. Dr. Johnson found the work tough but meaningful, and it made me throw my name in for Senate here. Since then, I’ve found the Senate to be a weird and seemingly archaic structure. Where else in my life am I called Senator Parsons?!? But, I’ve also loved that the Senate creates a space for senators from all over the university to come together and shape the intellectual life of the university. I love UNCG. The students, staff, and faculty are supportive to each other and I’ve been inspired by the Chancellor’s vision of Giant Steps and the administration’s work on equity and inclusion. The fact that I can create this blog comes from the digital tools and public communications skills I have learned through UNCG’s resources. I’m privileged to give back to UNCG through my Senate service.

For those readers who are new to this topic, the Senate represents the faculty in issues including the curriculum, budget, and faculty welfare, among many others. (Click here for our our Constitution; yes we have one). UNCG also has a Staff Senate, which represents the staff and advises the Chancellor. These bodies are part of what’s called shared governance. The AAUP defines it as “the joint responsibility of faculty, administration, and governing boards to govern colleges and universities. Differences in the weight of each group's voice on a particular issue should be determined by the extent of its responsibility for and expertise on that issue.”

UNC Greensboro is facing a major time of change right now. We are operating under a new funding model, are facing political assaults on the liberal arts and higher education, and are trying to raise our enrollments at a time when demographics make that tough. And yet, we all are trying to work to stay true to our mission and vision, that UNC Greensboro will redefine the public research university for the 21st century as an inclusive, collaborative, and responsive institution making a difference in the lives of students and the communities it serves.