Joel Piperberg, Chairman, Academic Standards Committee
RE:
Increase in Faculty Membership on Academic Standards Committee
Date:
March 4, 1997
Proposal to Increase Faculty Membership on the Academic Standards
Committee
MOTION: According to the current Governance Manual, the Committee
should include "seven faculty members elected by Faculty Senate for three
year terms. Members are elected for overlapping years." I recommend the
addition of four more faculty members to the Committee bringing its
faculty membership to 11 individuals plus the Committee Chair who must be
a Faculty Senator elected from that body. New members should be elected as
soon as possible to fill the vacancies that will result from passage of
this motion. To balance the Committee, two of the new members should be
elected to one year terms ending in 1998, one should be elected to a two
year term ending in 1999 and the last should be elected to a term
beginning now and ending in 2000 (since it would make little sense to
elect someone who will serve in June and then perhaps go off the
Committee). If we follow this strategy, the Committee will have a turnover
of 4 faculty members per year (including the Committee Chair every third
year). For example, in Fall 1997, the terms of two current members will
expire as will the term of the present Chair. Elections to fill those
vacancies will be held at that time and their terms will end in 2000. RATIONALE: In its semiannual meetings, the Academic Standards
Committee meetings have routinely run late due to our desire to devote an
appropriate and sufficient amount of time to each case. thus, the students
awaiting their appeals often must wait for significant lengths of time.
Since the number of cases that are considered each semester is remarkably
constant, we should be able to stay on schedule if we enlarge the
Committee. The four additional faculty members will allow us to divide the
Committee into three rather than two subcommittees as in previous
meetings. All other things being equal, students will consequently not
need to wait nearly as long to have their cases decided and the efficiency
of the Committee will thus be increased. In recent elections, there have
been many more candidates to fill vacancies on the Committee than there
have been openings. Therefore, it should not be difficult to fill the new
Committee slots. Return to Faculty Senate Home Page Return to MU Home Page