The Robert Holland Faculty Senate held elections for key positions in its April 11 meeting. Former Senate vice president David Nagel was elected president for the oncoming year, replacing outgoing president Robert Wolverton. Hart Bailey, a professor in the college of veterinary medicine, was elected the new vice president and Jacquelyn Deeds, professor of agricultural information science, was voted secretary.Nagel, who was nominated for his position by Wolverton, said he would only make changes that merited progress within the Senate.
“If change is for the good then I’m committed to it, but if it’s change for the sake of change, then [I’m] not,” he said. “All change is not progress; I’m all for progress, but I’m not all for change.”
Interim President Vance Watson was in attendance for the first Faculty Senate meeting since his ascension to Mississippi State’s highest office.
Outgoing Faculty Senate President Robert Wolverton said he was pleased with Watson’s attendance.
“He knows what it’s about and has a high regard for it and wants to make sure we’re all on the same team working together,” Wolverton said. “He is very positive, and I know the Senate is very positive as well.”
Watson took the podium and addressed the Senate, relating his desire to work closely with them during his time in office.
“The beauty of working together is the fact that you get to interact with those that you might not normally would,” Watson said. “You might not learn what they do, but hopefully you’ll develop an appreciation for what they do and learn to respect them and their opinion, and if we get to that point, I think that’s what universities are all about.”
Senate members questioned Watson about plans concerning mandatory residence and meal plans for freshmen.
Senate member George Adebiyi, mechanical engineering professor, said mandating housing with the increasing enrollment numbers would present the school with an unnecessary challenge.
“To me we are adding to our problems if we commit to housing every freshman student,” Adebiyi said. “Secondly, if we are concerned about students and reducing costs for them, are we helping them by intruding on where they stay and whether they eat in the cafeteria?”
Watson said while plans for housing have already been set into motion for next year and the school has a contract with Aramark, he will examine the situation.
Mike Rackley, head of Information Technology Services, discussed various topics involving MSU’s Web site, including the transition from WebCT to Blackboard Vista. The transition between interfaces will take place in May.
University registrar Butch Stokes also addressed the Senate on MSU’s increasing number of students and capacity problems.
“Looking at fall 2008, we are at 95 percent plus capacity during our prime time periods that we offer classes,” Stokes said.
Stokes said enrollment at MSU has increased at a higher rate than planning predicted.
“We’ve talked about our grand plan to be at 20,000 students and that grand plan said we were going to be at 20,000 students, by 2015,” he said. “If we continue increasing at the rate of almost a thousand a year, 20,000 students is going to come a lot sooner than 2015.”
Stokes said possible solutions to the capacity problem could include extending the time when classes can be offered or the possible construction of a teaching building with multiple auditorium sized classrooms in it.