Site Index

Educational Policy Committee
April 2001

1. Review the minutes of the Graduate and Undergraduate Councils and work with the Graduate and Undergraduate Council chairpersons to prepare the presentation of their minutes for Senate consideration, highlighting items of special importance and policy issues.

   This item has been completed. The results of the undergraduate and graduate council minutes relating to educational policy have been approved and so reported to the executive committee.

2. Investigate the restructuring of the Educational Policy Committee to better coordinate the work of the committee with other Faculty Senate committees in the area of educational policy.

   Reviewed the proposed by-law committee changes to Senate by-laws and commented on these changes.

3. Study the following policies, curricular, and instructional issues and make recommendations to the Senate regarding these items:
   
   
   • The university's new policy on faculty and staff access to student records.

     There has been no action on this item yet. It will be taken up at the next meeting.

   • Nationalization of classrooms on the campus.

     There has been limited discussion of this issue. A proposal will be coming soon to the full senate in regards to this item. It will probably suggest that a new category of classroom be created, a "technology classroom" similar to the current large classroom category. Requests for these rooms would then be sent to CARS at the same time as the large classroom requests.

   • Work with other Faculty Senate committees on distance education issues, including "New College," to ensure that university policies are in agreement with recommendations on distance education.

     Discussions have led to a concern that there is no oversight of these activities currently in place. There appear to be no real policies relating to these types of courses currently and to distance education in particular. This is a possible item for next year's committee to tackle after the new Instruction with Teaching subcommittee is formed. In addition, Fred Weber has been active in the existing Instructional Technology Committee this year and has kept the committee informed on their activities.

4. Study the effect of contingent employment on the curricular and instructional goals of the University. This effort will be coordinated with a task force involving other Senate committees.

   Fred Weber has been active in the task force and has kept the EPC informed on their activities. The following issues have been identified:

   • Student advising and job references
   • Must be careful with policies on a maximum number. For example, one agriculture department has lost 1/2 of their faculty and they must use lecturers until they can replace the faculty.
   • What are the hiring criteria for these employees?
   • Are benefits available?
   • Who takes care of educational policy and curricular issues if you have only a few tenured faculty in a department?