Marywood’s Faculty Senate held its first meeting after the release of the Strategic Resource Allocation (SRA) report. 

The SRA process began last fall when Marywood hired a consulting firm to reduce the amount of financial resources being allocated to certain programs. The goal of the process is to save the university money.

Dr. Helen Bittel, associate English professor, said faculty had an “impassioned meeting” that lasted two hours on Friday afternoon because many individuals care about the future of Marywood.

According to Dr. David Palmiter, Faculty Senate president and professor of psychology and counseling, faculty members discussed the university’s mission and focus on shared governance.

Additionally, discussion points also included the change of Spanish, Philosophy, and Religious Studies from baccalaureate degree programs to minors as well as the logistics involved in the changes to the college structure, according to Bittel.

Palmiter said faculty had “real, vigorous discussion about what it [the SRA Report] all means and where we’ll go from here.”

Sr. Mary Ann Zimmer, associate professor of Religious Studies, said it was good for faculty to meet and process the information from the report.

She added that “the SRA process is complex, and it has a lot of ins and outs.”

Faculty members discussed if the decisions from the SRA Report will save the university money, as some faculty do not see how these decisions will be cost effective, according to Sr. Mary Ann.

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Jessica Bonacci contributed to this article.

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