The MSU Council of Faculty Affairs Deans (COFAD) provides an inclusive cross-campus forum for Assistant and Associate Deans and others working in academic human resources and faculty development. The Council espouses the values set out by the MSU Deans in their October 2019 document, which reads at its beginning:
“The academic leadership of MSU aspires to foster a campus culture where all individuals can do their best work. Critical to this goal is that the institution’s leaders demonstrate — intentionally, through our practices, policies, and interactions with one another – a commitment to establishing and nurturing a culture that is caring, open, trusting, and safe.”
It is in this spirit that COFAD is committed to having a leadership role to establish and nurture a caring, equitable, inclusive, and diverse culture by sharing information and ideas and by developing, implementing, and assessing best practices to advance faculty and academic staff. We work with faculty governance structures, deans of our respective units, and the Office of the Vice Provost and Associate Vice President of FASA on behalf of MSU’s faculty and academic staff. COFAD meets monthly during the academic year and elects its own chairperson or co-chairpersons, who serve as main contacts for the Council. The contact for the spring semester of 2025 is Ranjan Mukherjee.
Council of Faculty Affairs Deans, 2026-27: