The University of Iowa Faculty Senate elected Craig Just as Faculty Senate vice president and Naomi Greyser as secretary for the 2025-26 academic year at the council’s final meeting of the 2024-25 academic year Tuesday night.

The election follows former Faculty Senate Vice President Rodica Curtu’s appointment as Faculty Senate president for the 2025-26 academic year at a previous meeting.

Just, a Donald E. Bentley professor in engineering, joined the College of Engineering as a research scientist in 1993 and joined the tenure track in 2012 before being promoted to a full-time professor this April.

He was elected to both the Faculty Senate and Council in 2023, serving as Faculty Senate secretary for the past year. As Faculty Senate vice president, he promised to expand budget literacy and empower faculty to engage in financial decisions, collaborate with the UI Center for Advancement to reach its philanthropic goals, and collaborate with the vice president of research.

Greyser, an associate professor of American studies and gender studies, has won the President’s and Provost’s Award for Teaching Excellence and has been a member of the Faculty Senate since 2022. As Faculty Senate secretary, she promised to encourage faculty to engage in decision-making on AI’s role in research and the classroom, sustain the work of faculty, and prioritize the freedom of inquiry and funding as the higher education landscape continues to shift.

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After having the Faculty Senate presidential gavel passed to her by former Faculty Senate President Caroline Sheerin, Curtu addressed the Senate, concluding her opening remarks as president by discussing her experience as an international student and international faculty member from Romania. She commented on the importance of international students on campus and in the U.S.

“The University of Iowa and the state of Iowa have benefited enormously during the last several decades from the smartness, curiosity, creativity, and hard work of all faculty and students, including the international ones,” Curtu said.

Curtu referenced the Statement in Support of the Core Mission and Shared Values of Higher Education in the United States of America, which the Faculty Senate voted in support of earlier in the meeting, in her opening remark, citing the necessity of shared governance, academic freedom, and free speech at the higher education level.

The statement has been endorsed by 10 of the faculty governance leaders at universities in the Big Ten Academic Alliance, including most recently the Rutgers University Senate, the University of Massachusetts-Amherst Faculty Senate, and the University of Minnesota University Senate.