The Faculty Senate met Tuesday for the first time this semester and focused on discussions surrounding the new University of Iowa president, as well as hearing a presentation related to Information Technology security on campus.

Before the minutes from the last meeting were even voted on, the senate voted to suspend its rules and talk about a special motion. The motion would send a letter detailing its thoughts to the Iowa Board of Regents about Iowa’s Faculty Senate’s “no confidence” vote. 

The senate voted unanimously to approve the letter.

“The intent is to allow the faculty at University of Iowa to know that we value the same principals that they do,” said Rob Wallace, president of Faculty Senate and associate professor of ecology, evolution and organismal biology. “This is a statement of collegiality with our colleagues at the University of Iowa.”

Wallace said he will email the letter to Board of Regents President Bruce Rastetter and Iowa’s Faculty Senate President Christina Bohannan, as well as send a copy to President Steven Leath.

“We wholeheartedly reaffirm our commitment to openness and transparency,” the letter said.

The one-page letter goes on to talk about the foundations that unite the three universities in Iowa and that the ISU Faculty Senate supports what is happening between the Board of Regents and the Faculty Senate at Iowa.

“We support the ongoing dialogue between the University of Iowa Faculty Senate and the Board of Regents to reestablish trust and confidence that faculty input is important and respected,” the letter said.

Annemarie Butler, secretary for the senate and associate professor of philosophy and religious studies, said a nice feature of this is it doesn’t play the blame game.

The letter was co-authored by Butler and Steven Freeman, university professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering, but will be signed by Wallace on behalf of the ISU Faculty Senate.

“Our hope is to move forward and focus on shared governance,” Butler said.

Kevin Amidon, associate professor of world languages and cultures, said he supported the letter.

“We all share an interest in a functioning, collaborative culture,” Amidon said. “They feel as if the candidate was imposed on the campus without any consultation.”

The recent “no confidence” vote sent shockwaves throughout the state, with the Iowa’s Student Senate and Graduate and Professional Student Senate also joining in the vote voicing their displeasure with the Iowa Board of Regents.

Iowa President-elect Bruce Harreld, who will assume the full duties of the office of the president in November, has an approval rating on campus that is polling in the single digits.

In addition to voting on sending the letter, the senate also heard reports on the state of the university’s IT structure from Jim Kurtenbach, interim vice president for IT.

Kurtenbach talked about how the number of malicious attacks against the university was reaching new levels.

In 60 days, the university saw nearly 1,500 attacks on its infrastructure, said Kurtenbach, who also talked during the meeting about the need to get all of the laptops used by faculty encrypted by late November.

“I have to encrypt laptops, and I’m encrypting my personal devices,” Kurtenbach said. He addressed concerns about how the encryption will affect computer performance, saying, “I can’t tell a difference between encrypted and unencrypted.”

After a few other housekeeping items, which included a name change for the culinary science major to culinary food science, Wallace adjourned the year’s first meeting.

The next Faculty Senate meeting will take place at 3:30 p.m. Oct. 20 in the Great Hall of the Memorial Union.