&In response to Andrew Kirk’s article “Academic Senate: Student reps aren’t pulling their weight,according to members.” I take exception to some of the comments made by Nancy Stroud, theAcademic Senate Secretary. I am a student representative on the Academic Senate, and I haveattended nine of the past ten Academic Senate meetings, despite having a direct school conflictwith the scheduled meeting times.
It has been intimidating to me and my fellow Student Senators to sit with and discuss campusissues with faculty members, many of whom previously have been our instructors. The issuesdiscussed at the Academic Senate meetings directly effect the faculty, and indirectly effect thestudents. There are over 100 members of the Academic Senate, and only 16 student Senators. While our 16 student Senators may be the “largest bloc representing a single group,” I do notbelieve that the faculty members would allow a few student representatives to control issues thatdirectly effect the faculty Senate members careers and lives.
There are a few faculty Senate members who comment at most of the Academic Senate meetings. Some members occasionally comment at a meeting, but a majority of the faculty Senate members rarely comment at a meeting. I was told a “horror” story of a previous Student representativewho attempted to comment on a debate at a meeting, and was vilified by faculty Senate memberswho disagreed with his opinion. Despite this, I did participate, and I did ask several questions atseveral different meetings.
We do not receive the Academic Senate “packets explaining debate topics a month early” asstated by Ms. Stroud. Instead, we receive an electronic version approximately one week beforethe meeting, and a hard copy version in our campus mailboxes usually the day of the meeting. Infact, I did not receive the correct electronic version for the May 3 meeting, until April 27, lessthan a week before the scheduled meeting.
I would hope that instead of misrepresenting and complaining after the fact about studentrepresentatives, that Ms. Stroud and other Academic Senate members would be pro-active incommunicating and assisting the student representatives involvement in the Academic Senate.
Dirk SpruntSeniorEducation