Minutes - October 16
October 16, 2007
Present: J. Bulen, D. Hayes, D. Johnson, B. Jones, W. Miner, J. Neitzke
Absent: J. Pauls, V. Pultz
The meeting convened at 9:00 a.m. Copies of the Constitution and Bylaws and the charge to the committee were distributed. Bryce Jones nominated Diane Johnson to chair the group, seconded by Jay Bulen. Vote by acclamation.
Some members felt that it was important to focus on some of the words in the charge. “Integrity of faculty governance” and its meaning of being free from undue influence was discussed briefly by the group, as was “accountability” and its implication for a system that emphasizes communication with constituents.
It was noted that the charge establishes Faculty Senate first, then Undergraduate Council and Graduate Council. We should look at the whole structure and not assume that we will want to recreate the present structure. The group noted that the bulk of the work with curriculum is currently shouldered by Undergraduate Council. We considered the question, “Does the current structure work?” Opinion was mixed. The structure of UGC/GC is not in the bylaws, but going beyond bylaws to rewrite the Constitution is possible. We would like to see the changes we propose go all the way through approval by faculty and by the Board of Governors. Changes to the Constitution might be more difficult to get through that process, for a number of reasons.
Some members felt that the basic structure was workable, but that we should reserve the option to revisit changing the Constitution as we worked through bylaw changes with our charge in mind. We should look at the bylaws for Graduate Council as well as the UGC bylaws.
Karen McClaskey, head of reference at Pickler Library, has volunteered to assist the committee in its work. We will check with her about governance changes at other institutions.
We had an initial discussion of the options for representation, including: having all faculty be members of the faculty senate, having elected at-large faculty members, having representation by department, and having representation by buildings. We considered a rough timeline for our work, concluding that we would like to get the bulk of the work done this semester so that recommendations can be forwarded to Faculty Senate in the early part of the spring semester.
We agreed to meet on October 30 and November 6 in VH 2151 at 9 a.m.