UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Mohamad A. Ansari, associate professor of mathematics at Penn State Berks, will assume the role of University Faculty Ombudsperson on July 1, the University Faculty Senate has announced.
Ansari was elected to a four-year term in April 2017 and has served as ombudsperson-elect since July 1, 2017. He succeeds Pamela Hufnagel, assistant professor of education at Penn State DuBois, who has served as the University Faculty Ombudsperson since July 2014.
A Penn State faculty member since 1983, Ansari served as chair of the University Faculty Senate during the 2015-16 academic year. He has represented the Berks campus as a faculty senator since 2001, with his current term expiring in 2020. He also served as chair of the Berks Faculty Senate several times, most recently from 2011 to 2013.
During his tenure as chair of the University Faculty Senate, Ansari’s legislative accomplishments included 44 advisory/consultative and legislative reports, as well as 44 forensic and informational reports.
Ansari has been a member of the Senate Council since 2011. He also was a member of the Faculty Rights and Responsibilities Committee from 2008 to 2014; served as chair of the Senate Self-Study Committee in 2012-13; was Faculty Senate Parliamentarian in 2012-13; was a member of the Unit Constitution Committee in 2012-13 and the External Matters Subcommittee in 2011-12; and served as chair of the Faculty Affairs Committee in 2005-06.
In addition, Ansari was a Committee on Institutional Cooperation (now the Big Ten Academic Alliance) Academic Leadership Fellow in 2014-15 and a member of the University’s Administrative Council on Undergraduate Education that same year. He has served as a member of the Penn State Berks Senate Executive Committee since 2007.
The University Faculty Ombudsperson coordinates the training of all college and campus ombudspersons and serves as the University-level contact for all unit ombudspersons. The University Faculty Ombudsperson reports periodically to the Senate Council and maintains liaison with the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost and the Office of Human Resources.
More information on the role of the University Faculty Ombudsperson, including recent reports and various related policies, can be found at http://senate.psu.edu/faculty/university-faculty-ombudsperson/.