UPDATE: The Independent apologize to Mateo Mohammad Farzaneh for the Identification in the article. It was Dennis Grammenos who was quoted saying “This is petty shit”, not Dr. Farzaneh. I will ensure that I and the Independent newspaper team exercise more caution in alignment with quotes and names.
My first faculty senate meeting was interesting, to say the least. This meeting seemed like a mild SNL skit. The meeting seemed normal, from glasses being thrown and tantrums being held. For those who saw this meeting in action, just remember that the senate did not escape the child care center when the teachers weren’t looking, but are professors with big feelings that can’t be expressed. What reminded them that they were professionals that work at our university was that they were able to re-elect Dr. X. Wang to an at-large position after subbing in for Deepa Pillai, who took back her seat.
The madness first started when Nancy Wrinkle gave a “short” speech on, ironically, the responsibility of university professionals. Wrinkle also mentioned what she did with the College of Business and Technology (CBT) after Interim President Dr. Katrina Bell-Jordan’s beautiful speech on the progress the university made this new semester, such as the growth of 273 new NEIU students, 18 of those being freshman.
Professor Essam Elshafie brought to the table an issue with policies approved from 2002, which was in the minutes from the last faculty senate meeting from 2023. This was caused by an out-of-date minutes sheet that was reported to be updated an hour before the meeting. Nancy Wrinkle mentioned that the issue was not changed within the last page of the minutes. Then it was noticed that the request to change the minutes in some PowerPoint was not added in. This back and forth seemed to annoy Professor Elshafie as he told the senate to forget about what they talked about, which worked as they took a motion to move on to the next topic.
Because the tension was so thick a knife wouldn’t even cut it, Dr. Nikolas Hoel had to remind the senate of “Robert’s Rules”, which are a set of rules that guide the motion of a group of people casting votes. The frustration in his voice was loud and clear, as the senate settled down, for now. Professor Elshafie stated he had emailed the steering committee in the senate before the meeting saying that the meetings weren’t about motions, but about interpreting constitutional issues. Dr. Wrinkle proposed a way that the senate can move forward in the meeting is for the professors to hold accountability from the year prior. The steering committee has put that issue to the side that the issue brought up, saying that they don’t want it brought to the full Senate.
After her speech, Professor Elshafie stated that this issue was not passed through anyone, emphasizing her not pushing it through anyone. Dr. Hoel said that at that moment in time, what Dr. Wrinkle did was appropriate. Professor Elshafie disagreed, saying that it was insufficient to the bylaws since there was no motion passed through the Senate or anyone to second that motion.
There was an echo in the recording I have from the meeting from Professor Elshafie raising his voice in frustration from presumingly his voice not getting heard in the Senate. This is where I saw Dr. Bell-Jordan’s expression fall to a deep depression I only see from my peers in finals week.
This is where glasses were slammed, as done by Dennis Grammenos.
“This is Petty shit now.” Grammenos was getting frustrated. This burst of anger was understandable but could have been handled better. Dr. Hoel once again had to remind the senate that they are a senate and not a daycare, saying “Let’s keep this from being personal.”
That was all Dr. Hoel had to say to sum this whole meeting up for someone who never sat in a faculty senate meeting. These toddler-like outbursts in adult form tell us how there are generational differences in the definition of “adult”.
For the older crowd, an adult has a stable job, family, and a house of his own. My generation defines adults as gaining emotional maturity and maybe being able to get an apartment due to the past generation’s expectations being unreasonable.
I believe that these people did not develop this emotional maturity because of the mindset that being an adult is the end of your growth. It’s concerning seeing the same outburst I see in kids I used to work with from adults who are in the process of making decisions for the university. If you are a member of the faculty senate reading this, please reflect on how you can work on healthy outlets to let out those big feelings, buddy.
