Officials are postponing this year’s Faculty Assembly meeting, according to an announcement on the Faculty Senate’s website.

Officials originally scheduled the assembly’s fall meeting for Oct. 7, but the announcement states the senate’s executive committee asked University President Thomas LeBlanc to postpone the meeting to “a date to be specified later this fall.” The delay will give senate staff more time to work with Information Technologies staff to determine how to hold the meeting virtually and ensure that any votes taken during the meeting are “fair, complete and transparent,” the announcement states.

The assembly, an annual meeting of all faculty, last met in February after Sylvia Marotta-Walters, the then-chair of the senate’s executive committee, called a special meeting in light of a petition more than 20 faculty signed, calling for the senate to investigate details surrounding the University’s strategic planning process.

The announcement states that senate and IT staff have been working “extensively” to determine how to hold the meeting virtually this year, and more technical work will be needed to make the meeting “feasible.”

“Senate leadership and staff are working hard with IT personnel and the administration to identify and test reliable solutions that can allow a virtual assembly,” the announcement states. “As this work continues, a new fall 2020 date will be established for the assembly.”