A rift has formed between the Faculty Senate and the provost-appointed University Undergraduate Council (UUC) over who has the power to make major curriculum changes to University programs.
The crux of the problem is that both the UUC's bylaws and the constitution of the Faculty Senate have overlapping and conflicting statements of mission, according to a resolution passed by the Faculty Senate.
"These (WCI courses) were eliminated without the faculty senate's vote," Sheryl Maxwell, chair of the executive committee of the Faculty Senate and associate professor of mathematics education, told her colleagues. "The process occurred in an unusual manner."
The WCI courses are writing, computation and integrative intensive that are upper division courses which were established to reinforce general education competencies at the program level, according to a document created by Maxwell. The document was approved by the Senate at their meeting Tuesday.
"We believed that we were moving towards shared governance, but it was a step back," Maxwell said. "We disagree who has the authority of decision-making that goes to (Provost) Ralph Faudree. What did come across is that there was no communication."
The Faculty Senate is not opposed to shared governance, and they are working toward having it more clearly defined.
"It isn't bad to have two different bodies looking at the same thing. It gives you strength," Maxwell said. "What happened here was that a decision was made without our input."
Other members of the Senate shared Maxwell's convictions.
"I would prefer that we make it a collective issue," said Jean-Pierre Reed, Faculty Senate delegate and sociology professor. "It is too bad that we have to deal with this next year instead of tomorrow."
In their resolution, the Faculty Senate also expressed objections to the "unilateral decision by Provost Faudree" because they were excluded from the decision-making process, and because the office of the Provost "failed to share information in a timely manner" with them. The conflict has "jeopardized the crucial elements of trust and transparency required for shared governance," according to their resolution.
"I do believe in shared governance and the role of the faculty in academic decision making. In my opinion, the UCC, Graduate Curricular Committee, Faculty Senate and other faculty committees are all important to such structure," wrote Faudree in a memorandum to Maxwell. "I believe that we need to continue to work to clarify and distinguish between the roles of each of these groups to make each as effective as possible. I also think that we need to facilitate communication as much as possible."
Despite the animosity towards the process and authority issues, the Faculty Senate did not forget what their purpose was.
"We are here to be on the cutting edge of our respective fields. We are here for the students," said Albert Okunade, Faculty Senate delegate and professor of economics. "Usually nothing will happen for you if you have a negative perspective."
