Faculty Senate Meeting
• Address by Senator Stanley Rosenberg (D–Amherst)
(Questions and Discussion to follow)
ROSENBERG TO DISCUSS STATE SUPPORT FOR UMASS WITH FACULTY
An address by state Sen. Stanley Rosenberg (D--Amherst) headlines the Oct. 19 meeting of the Faculty Senate at the University of Massachusetts. After the address, attendees will have the opportunity to ask him questions. Senators also are scheduled to vote on changes to the academic calendar that would shorten the intersemester break in order to end the school year several weeks earlier.
Rosenberg expects to discuss the seven-year, $430 million higher education investment package that he supported in the senate and that is now being considered by the house, according to an aide. Likely issues in the question period will include the Sept. 28 election of Stephen P. Tocco as the University’s Board of Trustees chairman and its impact on the future of master planning for the University system, according to senate Secretary Ernest May.
• Special Reports of the Academic Matters Council concerning the 2008-2009 and 2009-2010
Academic Calendars (John Jenkins, Chair)
FACULTY REPS TO CONSIDER SHORTENING ACADEMIC YEAR
The academic calendar change, which the senate is considering for the 2008-09 and 2009-10 school years, is designed to put the University in line with the majority of other academic institutions, which hold graduation ceremonies in early to mid-May, according to Mokhtar Atallah, a member of the senate’s Academic Matters Council. Traditionally, the spring semester has begun the last week of January and ended with undergraduate commencement in the fourth week of May. Under the new system, classes would begin the second week of January and commencement would be the second week of May.
Atallah said that students and their parents have been requesting an earlier release from the academic year in order to allow students to be competitive on the summer job market. Ending the school year later than attendees of other institutions was putting UMass students at a disadvantage, he said.
“For them, there is no job market in January, so that month is almost wasted,” he said. “Going out earlier would allow them to be competitive.
“This is going to entail some coordination with the Five Colleges. We are looking into how we can all try to be synchronized, since there are students taking courses at more than one place and faculty involved in Five Colleges programs and committees, so that will need to be worked out.”
Atallah said registrars from the Five Colleges were considering the matter together, as were others affected by the change, and added that some constituents would like to wait an additional year to start the new calendar.
In other business, the senate will consider a revision of teaching mode classification in the Universities online registration system.
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• Special Report of the Ad Hoc Committee on Online Learning concerning The Recommended Revision of Teaching Mode Classification in SPIRE (Marilyn Billings and Sara McComb, Co-Chairs)
• Special Reports of the Graduate and Program and Budget Councils concerning The Dual Degree Option in the Masters in Business Administration and the Masters in Science in Civil, Environmental and Industrial Engineering (Linda Shea and Joseph Goldstein, Chairs, respectively)
• Annual Report of the Status of Minorities Council for Academic Year 2005-2006 (Mari Castañeda, Chair)
• Annual Report of the Program and Budget Council for Academic Year 2005-2006 (Joseph Goldstein, Chair)
• Special Report of the Committee on Committees concerning Nominations to Faculty Senate Councils and Committees (Arthur Kinney, Chair)