Faculty Senate postpones reading days vote
Utah State University’s Faculty Senate will wait until April 28 to vote on a resolution implementing reading days and enforcing dead week before finals.
If it’s passed, students will have two non-class study days before finals week (reading days), and faculty members may not give any tests or quizzes, or assign or accept any papers and projects during the final week of classes (dead week).
However, students may have to start the school year two days earlier depending on the academic calendar for that year.
The resolution would go into effect the 2004-05 academic year.
During its regular meeting Monday, the senate had too many questions and concerns about the proposed resolution to vote on it.
Ericka Ensign, Associated Students of USU Academic vice president, and other members of the ASUSU Executive Council presented the controversial resolution to the senate in the hope that it would pass it during the meeting.
The council members are asking for the support of the Faculty Senate, but the resolution will go forward to President Kermit L. Hall and Provost Stan Albrecht, regardless of the senate’s approval, Celestial Bybee, ASUSU president, said.
Ensign said members of the senate voiced their concerns about the resolution to the council members inappropriately by interrupting their presentation with arguments spoken in a disrespectful tone.
However, the senate did commend and applaud the efforts of the council members in preparing the resolution.
During Tuesday’s ASUSU Executive Council meeting, Ensign said, “[The council members] were not received well, but [many] have offered condolences for the way we were treated.”
Although members of the senate said the resolution would benefit students, many said they felt it would be a detriment to the faculty.
Faculty members said they are afraid they will not have enough time to grade all their students’ final projects and tests if the resolution is passed. They said they are also concerned with the calendaring process, especially with the pressures of commencement.
“The students get to have time off of class to prepare for finals, but the teachers are just going to have to be there,” Michael Timmons, senate member, said.
Some members were also concerned about the accuracy of a survey ASUSU administered to the students about the resolution. They wondered why Extension students were not surveyed.
“We need to be careful not to compare apples and oranges,” Janice Boettinger, senate member, said referring to Extension students and students on campus.
Ensign said the resolution only applies to students on campus.
Timmons said he felt the survey did not accurately reflect the students’ opinions. He said he interviewed 57 of his students, and only one was in favor of the resolution.
“Nobody has a part in the poll,” he said.
Kelly Mendenhall, ASUSU Extension vice president, explained that ASUSU went through the university to perform an accurate and random survey based on student enrollment numbers.
“[The surveys] are as good as they could be done,” said Chris Coray, a senate member who assisted the council members with the survey.
The senate requested time to speak with students and other members of their college departments.
The current policy in the USU General Catalog states that a five-day period before finals week should be designated so neither final exams nor tests of any kind are given.
However, that policy is not enforced, Ensign said.
During Tuesday’s Executive Council meeting, Ensign said she intends to drop the section in the resolution regarding dead week in good faith that the university will enforce the guidelines regarding no-test days.
She also said she will not include in the resolution that instructors have to hold office hours for students during the reading days.
In other business, the Faculty Senate voted to take the faculty evaluations off the university Web site in order to establish a system that accurately portrays the performance of each faculty member.
Currently, the information on the site only shows portions of a class’ opinion on a faculty member, because not everyone votes. It also does not go into enough detail to make an accurate judgment on a teacher, Bill Brindley, senate member, said.
Richard Sherlock, senate member, said, “I think the information on the Web site is utterly misleading.”
Some senate members feel the students should spend more time when filling out the evaluations and suggested even having the students sign their names on them.
A subcommittee of the Faculty Senate will work to find a solution to the problem.
-mmackay@cc.usu.edu