The Faculty Senate agreed Jan. 16 to recommend a proposed academic forgiveness resolution to the Dean’s Council and reviewed the university’s Fall Break last semester.
The senate voted 25-14 to recommend the policy came the Student Association’s approval late last year.
It suggested restricting the number of class hours forgiven to six. The SA’s recommendation called for seven class hours.
In a last minute amendment to the proposal, the Senate took the advice of Sen. Dan Embree, an English professor, and added a provision that stated no failing grades received for academic dishonesty could be forgiven.
Linda Morse, chair of the Academic Affairs Committee, favored the plans.
“Our position on the committee is to give it a try and see,” Morse said.
The senate’s decision to recommend the proposal comes after several failed attempts by the SA.
In an earlier interview, Richard Heard, director of academic affairs for the SA, said he believed the vote would be close, but he had hopes that the policy would pass.
Despite some of the negative opinions regarding the policy, the vote passed with a clear majority.
Sen. Mark Goodman, a communication professor, disagreed with the policy.
“We’re encouraging students to take F’s and then take the class at another time,” Goodman said. “If nothing is broken, then why fix it?”
Senate President Walter Diehl raised a controversial subject earlier in the meeting when he discussed the university’s review of last semester’s Fall Break.
“The deans weren’t happy with the break,” Diehl said. “I don’t think many people were happy with Fall Break, and I don’t know if it’ll happen again.”
Diehl said some talk concerning next year’s break included changing some of the off-days. Some suggested taking the Wednesday before Thanksgiving off, and having a four-day weekend in October. One person even recommended “cannibalizing Labor Day,” meaning attending classes on the September holiday.
Several senators opposed the suggestion to attend school on the national holiday.
“Don’t touch Labor Day,” Embree said.
Diehl took an informal poll to see what Senators opposed that certain idea, and the results were against it.
The senate and SA both supported having final exams last semester Monday through Friday, Diehl said. However, now that deadlines restrict the scheduling of next year’s fall break, the decision would would be left to the provost’s office. Therefore, therefore the senate would not be able to review the new break.
One Senator brought up that the university had agreed last year to keep the Fall Break for at least two years. Diehl said that even though they agreed to have it, they said nothing about keeping the same off-days as last semester’s break.
Now that the resolution has passed the Faculty Senate it will venture to the Dean’s Council. If passed by the council, it will go to the provost for approval, Blades said.
“It’s important to note that the provost has already expressed his support for the policy. I feel like our biggest obstacle is behind us now, with the Faculty Senate,” Blades said.