Senate debates reducing its size from 250 to 63 members

By Craig Chamberlain

A tentative proposal to reduce the size of the Urbana-Champaign Senate got
both criticism and support from the senate at its regular meeting on
Monday.

Floated as a trial balloon by the ad hoc Senate Review Commission - by
making it the designated topic for Monday's committee-of-the-whole
discussion - the proposal calls for making the body one quarter of its
present size.

Instead of its current 250 members, the senate would be reduced to 63
members - 50 faculty members, 10 undergraduates and three graduate
students.

Thomas F. Conry, chair of the review commission, said the idea was being
aired as an outgrowth of his group's deliberations, but it had not been
voted on or endorsed.  The value in airing the idea, he said, was that it
pointed to the main issues that the commission believes are important to
resolve: defining the nature of the relationship between the senate and
the administration, the uneven quality of committee work, the lack of
participation, and the perceived tendency by the senate to spend too
much time on routine matters rather than larger issues.

Conry noted that a previous review commission had proposed reducing the
senate to 100 members, but the proposal had not been accepted.

Ian Westbury, a member of the commission, argued in favor of the reduction
noting that the senate and its work were "an acquired taste."  The average
turnout for senate meetings - currently about 140 out of 250 - demonstrated
that the pool of people who had that taste and were truly interested was
limited, he said.

"A smaller body might be a more active body," and maybe more deliberative
or effective, Westbury said.  The fewer senate seats also might bring
"actual competition" to fill them, he said, which would not be a bad thing
"in any way, shape or form."

Geneva G. Belford, another member of the commission, spoke in opposition to
the reduction, claiming it would make the senate more "an exclusive club."
Some departments would risk losing their voice in the senate, she said,
because they would be sharing a senator with several other departments.

Belford also said the failure of many senators to attend meetings was not
all negative.  The best way for someone to find out if he or she will
"acquire a taste" for the senate is to join it, she said, but that also
means that some will find they lack interest and will become inactive.

Comments from other faculty and student senators through the rest of the
half-hour discussion reiterated many of the same points outlined by the
main speakers, but even several of those in favor of a reduction said
a cut of three-quarters might be going too far.

In other business, the senate:

* Approved by a voice vote a proposal for the termination of the
  undergraduate program leading to the bachelor of social work degree.

  According to the proposal, "The [School of Social Work] can no longer
  provide the faculty and support staff needed to maintain four high-quality
  programs.  The faculty has voted to eliminate the BSW to preserve the
  strength" of the other three programs, one of which leads to a doctorate
  and two of which lead to master's degrees.
  
  Those other three programs "are in far greater demand . and would be placed
  in jeopardy if the BSW program were continued," the proposal said.

  It further noted that elimination of the program "would have little impact
  upon the supply of undergraduate social work degree holders or on access to
  undergraduate social work education in Illinois."  The UI program is one of
  the smallest in the state, currently enrolling only 51 students.
  
  If the proposal gains needed approvals from the UI Board of Trustees and
  the Illinois Board of Higher Education, the School of Social Work would
  move to close undergraduate admissions as early as January 1995.  The
  school would continue, however, to offer required courses to enrolled
  students until they completed their degrees.
  
* Heard from Larry R. Faulkner, the new vice chancellor for academic
  affairs, on the development of a freshman "discovery" program similar to
  efforts at other schools.
  
  The aim of the program is to give all incoming students at least one
  semester-long, small-group classroom or lab experience with a faculty
  member, Faulkner said.

  The campus Council on Undergraduate Education has developed seven different
  formats for these small-group classes or labs, Faulkner said, and a
  document explaining them will be sent out to deans within the next few
  weeks.  "We hope to unleash a wave of inventiveness among our faculty"
  in developing courses or sections that fit the formats, he said.
  
  The program will be experimental this fall, with the hope that 1,000 to
  2,000 students could be involved and faculty can gain experience with what
  works and what doesn't, Faulkner said.

* Approved a proposal to reorganize the administrative structure of
  the library.

* Approved a proposal to transfer the department of atmospheric sciences
  from the Graduate College to the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.