Though she was unfamiliar with the position months ago, Camilla Brammer, the new Faculty Senate chair at Marshall replacing Larry Stickler, said Wednesday she has the mind set to represent the university faculty for the next two years.
Her calm demeanor also allows her to realize her new position isn't about her but the people and body she represents.
"My job as I see it at this point is simply to represent the faculty in the best possible light," Brammer said. "We as a governance group have a strong voice, and our voice needs to be heard."
In fact, it has been Brammer's calm demeanor that has guided her through 24 years of service to Marshall as a professor of communications studies.
Brammer has an undergraduate degree from the university in political science and a master's degree in communication studies. She also has a doctorate in communication studies from Ohio University.
Still, with all her ties to Marshall, the title of Faculty Senate chair is new to Brammer. She has served as the chair of the Faculty Senate Personnel Committee for two years before accepting her new role as chair, but the idea of being the voice for the Marshall faculty never really interested her.
That is until Brammer was asked if she would accept a nomination, which she did.
Then she sought advice from former chair and friend Stickler, who was the person who got her involved with the Personnel Committee in the first place.
"He was encouraging when I was asking him . . . just to find out what it was that was entailed with the position," Brammer said.
Her interest grew from there, and Brammer said she realized it was something she would like to do. The whole process commenced when she was nominated and elected as chair April 24, replacing Stickler, the longest serving chair of the Faculty Senate.
One thing Brammer said was an important role for her to play early was to find a level of agreement between the faculty and Marshall President Stephen Kopp's administration.
"At Faculty Senate you need to work with the administration, but the administration needs to work with us also," Brammer said.
One item she mentioned was Kopp's recent disapproval of a senior professor rank would give some full professors a higher salary, a recommendation that came from her Personnel Committee. Brammer said despite the setback, she understands the need for more distinct criteria for the senior professor rank that Kopp is asking for.
She added the Senate is waiting on a cost analysis to determine the cost of the program, and she will try to be a good liaison in the meantime.
"I don't think there are any major difficulties," Brammer said about Faculty Senate's relationship with the administration. "I think there are some differences between faculty and administration, but those differences can be resolved."
Brammer has a somewhat peculiar analogy for another one of her responsibilities. She compared getting every Senate member on the same page to herding cats. The thought of wrangling up a dozen felines seemed just as tricky as getting every member of her Personnel Committee to meet at the same time and to take their role as a true commitment.
"It was a good group of people to work with but the problem with outside committees . . . between their classes and their commitment to their publications and research work, there's not a lot of time left," Brammer said.
Between grading, teaching and attending various meetings, Brammer has come across a problem she would like to see addressed in the future - the problem of finding new professors willing to work on Marshall's pay scale.
"It's easy to sell Marshall and the community; it's a hard sell with the salary schedule we have to work with," Brammer said.
Despite what she said was a 65-hour workweek for her as well, Brammer said she still has a lot to contribute as the new Senate chair.
"I have a lot of history with the university, as far as where we've been," she said. "I don't think there's a lot of dissent within the faculty as far as on the Senate, but I think I can be a good voice for them."
Brammer is married to Richard Brammer, who also graduated from Marshall and is a hydraulics engineer. The Marshall ties continue to interlace because her two sons, Brian and Sean, also have degrees from the university and now work in North Carolina. She also has three grandchildren.
Though she said she has a busy life, she wouldn't change anything. She doesn't hide from work, instead she looks for extra things to do, whether it is consulting for outside firms or playing Frisbee with her dogs.
She credits all of her colleagues, especially Dorothy Johnson and Catherine Cummings for being influences on her career.
Another part about working at Marshall she loves is her interaction with students. She even wishes the university were in the position of having too many students so she could see the "light bulbs go off" during one of her lectures for more young adults.
"I never really think of my job as a job," Brammer said. "I don't say 'I'm going to the office' or 'I'm going to my job.' I say 'I'm going to school.'"
And for her, it is that calm demeanor that she hopes will help her be the voice of the faculty and make each day worthwhile.
Brian Dalek can be contacted at dalek@marshall.edu.
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