Folt: Sexual assault report coming this week

Faculty Chairman Bruce Cairns was dressed for the occasion.

After the joint meeting between the Faculty Executive Committee and the Chancellor’s Advisory Committee ended, Cairns — adorned in a suit jacket and bow tie — and other committee members accepted Chancellor Carol Folt’s ALS Ice Bucket Challenge and were doused by their colleagues in front of South Building.

Before Cairns was soaked, the meeting, located in a filled-to-capacity conference room in the Steele Building, revolved around faculty members asking Folt questions about major issues facing the University.

“Of the biggest issues coming to fruition — the (sexual assault) task force and all of the work they did will be released in the next day or two,” Folt said.

Former federal prosecutor Kenneth Wainstein’s report on the University’s former African-American and Afro Studies department is not expected for some time, Folt said.

Folt said she expects it to be released before the end of the semester. Wainstein began his investigation in February.

“We will be receiving the final update about the investigation pretty soon. I don’t have an exact date,” Folt said.

She said her office is working to ready itself for the release of his report, specifically preparing for the influx of public record reports over the items Wainstein reviewed.

Faculty members were also concerned about the release of the state’s budget, expecting possible cuts.

“This year, the University was not the focus of the legislature. It was K-12 education ... making a more competitive landscape for teachers,” Folt said.

Many committee members had questions regarding the faculty’s position on the financial uncertainty.

“We get legislators through our building all the time,” said Richard Myers, a law school professor and member of the Chancellor’s Advisory Committee.

“I think there is a strong sense throughout the faculty that we don’t know what the University’s stance is on the budget.”

After requests for more faculty input on the budget, meetings between faculty and other administrators on hot-button budget issues could be productive, Folt said.

With the night parking fee no longer going into effect this year , members from both committees expressed their appreciation for the foresight to remove the fee before it was implemented.

“I honestly didn’t know we had a nighttime parking fee coming on,” Folt said, referencing how the fee was a part of a five-year plan.

“Longer-term plans like this — you want to make sure you revisit and check up on them. We will cover the financial burden so we will not have to raise other parking to cover for it.”

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