Colleagues,
I hope that everyone has had a productive fall quarter! We have been busy at the Faculty Senate and would like to take this opportunity to update you about a few of the key things we have done. There are more details available in the Faculty Senate report to the Board of Trustees. Here is a link to the most recent report, presented to the Board at its December 8 meeting.
***
We have been hard at work reconstituting a couple of the Senate’s standing committees, including our Outreach and Continuing Education Committee (OCEC) and the Senate Library Committee (SLC). These committees are both now meeting for the first time in several years. The standing committees are key to effective shared governance, so I am grateful to those who have stepped up to serve on these and other important university committees.
***
Call for Applicants: Deputy Budget Representative
The Senate recently approved a significant restructuring of the UPRC, which moves the budget discussions into Senate Exec and the full Faculty Senate. As part of this new structure, we have a Budget Representative and a Deputy Budget Representative, both of whom will serve on the University Budget Committee.
The most recent UPRC chair Allison Giffen will remain as the Budget Representative for the duration of the academic year, but we are soliciting nominations for the role of Deputy Budget Representative, who will take over as Budget Representative in Fall 2024. If you are interested in this position, would like more information, or would like to nominate someone for it, please email us at faculty.senate@wwu.edu or feel free to contact me at dupontb@wwu.edu.
***
Call for Members: Academic Grievance Board
We need volunteers to serve on the Academic Grievance Board. This board meets as needed whenever a dean’s decision on an academic grievance filed by a student is appealed. The pool of board members shall consist of six faculty appointed by the Faculty Senate for three-year terms.
Details about the Academic Grievance Board may be found here.
***
The Senate approved a new ACC policy that requires review of all permanently approved online and hybrid courses. This policy provides a recommended review process to ensure that all courses taught in alternative modalities comply with the new College Modality Policies, the ACC Syllabus Policy, and the ACC Credit Hour policy. This proposal was approved by The deadline for completing these reviews is December 1, 2024.
***
Finally, as we head into final exams, just a friendly reminder that faculty are expected to follow the final exam week policy, which reads in part as follows:
All final examinations are scheduled during the last week of the quarter, which is known as final examination week. No final examinations except laboratory finals — whether for a whole class or part of a class or an individual — may be given before final examination week. This means that students may not petition faculty for early final examinations and that students should plan their end-of-quarter schedules in the expectation of final examinations in all courses.
I hope everyone has a pleasant holiday break!
All the best,
Brandon Dupont
Professor of Economics & Faculty Senate President