Dionte Berry
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Faculty members voiced their concerns surrounding the mask mandate’s repeal, the current University budget and how the current legislative session may affect higher education at the March Faculty Senate meeting.  

President Bob Jackson and Provost Tim Todd were guests at the March 1 meeting. With Kentucky’s General Assembly in session, Jackson discussed bills in the State Senate and House of Representatives that may play a role in how Murray State operates if they are voted into law. 

“Since the first of the year we have spent a great deal of time, primarily Jordan and Smith and myself in Frankfort, meeting with legislators, presenting to committees and working on statewide budgetary items for the good of the institution,” Jackson said. 

Beyond monitoring the possible operating budget for the Murray State budget, Jackson has been meeting with faculty and staff leaders concerning bills geared toward higher education.  

In conjunction with the budget, Sen. Andrew Black said he and his colleagues are concerned about how moving to the Missouri Valley Conference may affect the rest of the University’s budget.

“Many of my colleagues are concerned about this new move to an athletic conference when we have been under an austerity budget for the last several years,” Black said. 

Black requested for Jackson to provide a budget in order to ease his concerns of the lack of shared governance he felt in the Faculty Senate not playing a role in this decision to change conferences. 

But there is not a clear way to gauge how the move will affect the University yet because the budget is still being discussed in the General Assembly. 

“We do not know what the budget out of Frankfort looks like at this point, and so I am not sure how austere the budget will be,” Jackson said. 

The State Senate and House of Representatives will have to agree on a budget by April 15 when the legislative session ends. 

As a result of the confusion between Faculty governance and the actions of the athletics department, Sen. Randy Keller asked if there was an active Council for Intercollegiate Athletics.  

“I’m representing Murray State at the Coalition for Intercollegiate Athletics and went to a meeting two weekends ago … we zoomed in on the University of Houston, which had an advisory board consisting of faculty, faculty senate and athletics administration,” Keller said. “This model was recommended to other universities to address budgets and transparency.”

The committee was mentioned in the Faculty Handbook but did not seem to be active. 

In order to have a better sense of communication between the faculty and athletics, Keller invited other senators to work toward making a committee with the purpose of creating a line of communication between the athletic department and the faculty to not only address budgetary questions but to focus on student athletes as well.

Along with concerns about the budget, masking was an issue brought up by Sen. David Pizzo, not concerning it being gone but looking at how the administration went about it. The mask mandate was lifted on Feb. 28, at 10:15 a.m. via an email from President Jackson. 

At 10:15 a.m. classes were  in session, and Pizzo said the announcement was disruptive to classes and asked why the end of the mandate was not announced at another time.

“Students looked and they had their phones out and checked those texts and emails, and in the middle of class they were whipping their masks off and I got that,” Pizzo said. “This was a moment of freedom for them and they were so happy, but instructors were freaking out.” 

Pizzo further said he believes lifting the mask mandate was the right decision, but the announcement was made at an inappropriate time because it gave no warning to campus workers. 

“I’m shocked that anyone was surprised [about the lifting of the mask mandate]. This has been pending for sometime, we have talked about it,” Jackson said. “It’s on the nightly news and other universities have made the change. I’m not trying to debate the topic.” 

Concerning the mask mandate, Jackson said if Calloway County is to move back up to the “high” COVID-19 transmission zone, according to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, then masking will be reinstated. 

Kentucky Legislation concerning masking is something else the Faculty Senate is keeping an eye on. 

Further concerning legislation, Governmental Affairs Chair and Sen. Michael Bordieri noted there are around 60 pieces of legislation being tracked that could have an impact on higher education.

“This is the major legislative year, Kentucky runs on a biannual model, and the even years are budget years that last for 60 days … so this is the bigger session,” Bordieri said. “The budget is the most significant piece of legislation that will impact Murray State and that’s where quite a bit of our attention is at.”

Bordieri said the House of Representatives budget’s preliminary numbers look promising with a slight increase, and so the governmental affairs committee is waiting for the Senate’s budget. 

Beyond the budget, there is proposed legislation to rid of mask mandates in schools, ban critical race theory and financially compensate collegiate athletes. 

More will be known about the progress of bills affecting higher education and the operating budget by the next Faculty Senate meeting, which will be held on April 5.