Senate OKs renaming, reorganizing of College of Agriculture

By Craig Chamberlain

The Urbana-Champaign Senate approved a name change and
restructuring for the College of Agriculture in its meeting
March 27.

The senate registered its disapproval, however, for efforts
in Springfield to increase the powers of the Illinois Board
of Higher Education (IBHE).

The Agriculture proposal, approved with no debate from the
senate floor, will bring a new name to the college with the
start of the fall semester, provided the measure also is
approved by the UI Board of Trustees.

The new name - the College of Agricultural, Consumer and
Environmental Sciences - "is an attempt to define the scope
and breadth of our college," according to materials
submitted by W.R. Gomes, the college dean and sponsor of the
proposal.

"Important components of our past and our vision for the
future suggest that the name of the college should reflect:
our commitment to the food and fiber system from production
to consumption; a perception that all we do involves the
participation of people; and a commitment to working with
both within their broader, lasting environment."

The proposal noted that other institutions recently have
changed the names of their colleges of agriculture to
achieve similar goals.

Coming with the change in name will be a restructuring that
will reduce the number of administrative units in the
college from 15 to seven, with few existing departments
retaining their current name and composition.

The proposed changes come at the end of a two-year process
that included discussions among college faculty and
administrators, a public hearing almost a year ago, and
votes of approval by the faculty (176-50, with 82 percent
voting), the college executive committee (11-2) and the
college administrative committee (16-0).

According to the proposal, a number of factors played a part
in the decision to make these changes, some of them mission-
driven and some of them financial. "While college faculty
have been engaged in efforts to better define the goals,
mission and vision that would allow us to reach our
potential," the proposal noted, "fiscal realities made it
imperative that such definitions include ways to more
efficiently address those goals.

"Changes in the factors influencing agriculture and human
sciences, questions about the structure of college units [by
the Illinois Board of Higher Education and the campus Budget
Strategies Committee, among others], and reduced flexibility
following years of reallocation and deallocation in budgets
all served to convince the faculty that a new structure
emphasizing multidisciplinary opportunities and reducing
numbers of administrative units would be in the best
interests of the college."



New names for departments, too

The restructuring would bring about the following changes:

  * Dissolving the School of Human Resources and Family
    Studies, causing its three divisions to merge with other
    units.
  * Merging faculty in HRFS' Division of Foods and Nutrition
    into the department of food science, with a name change to
    "department of food science and human nutrition."
  * Merging faculty in HRFS' Division of Consumer Science into
    the department of agricultural economics, with a name change
    to "department of agricultural and consumer economics."
  * Merging faculty in the Office of Agricultural
    Communications and Education, in Cooperative Extension
    Service 4-H and youth programs, and in rural sociology - the
    latter now within the department of agricultural economics -
    with the faculty in HRFS' Division of Human Development and
    Family Studies. The name of the new unit will be the
    "department of human and community development."
  * Merging faculty in the department of plant pathology into
    the department of agronomy, with a name change to
    "department of crop sciences."
  * Merging faculty in the Office of Agricultural Entomology,
    the department of agronomy's soils program and the
    department of forestry into the department of horticulture,
    with a name change to "department of natural resources and
    environmental sciences."

The proposal does not include more specific changes.
Transition teams for each of the new departments are
evaluating curricula, courses, student numbers, space and
other department responsibilities so they will be prepared
to recommend any needed changes after the departments are
formed.


Opposition to IBHE proposal

Though senators registered little criticism about the
Agriculture restructuring, they were urged by Senate Council
Chair Jane Leuthold to "make some noise now" about
legislation pending in Springfield that would increase the
power of the IBHE.

Proposed by the IBHE, and with initial support from Gov. Jim
Edgar, the legislation has come under strong criticism from
UI President Stanley O. Ikenberry and was assigned for study
to a subcommittee of the Illinois Senate's Higher Education
Committee.

The legislation, if passed, would give the IBHE the power to
eliminate academic programs within individual universities,
to set tuition and fees, and to approve all capital
projects, including financing. It also would extend IBHE
oversight to university foundations, alumni associations and
other organizations within the university structure.

The resolution passed by the faculty-student senate calls on
the governor and state legislators to oppose the measure and
urges university faculty, students and administrators to
contact the governor and state legislators to voice their
opposition.

Ken Andersen, chair of the senate's budget committee, said
it was important for the faculty's voice to be heard on the
issue in support of the university's president. "We need to
make it clear that this is a voice of students and faculty
and not just the will of an administrator," he said.


Conduct guidelines approved

In other business, the senate approved a two-page statement
providing guidelines for responsible professional conduct in
teaching, research and service on the UI campus.

The document was developed during the 1993-94 academic year
by a Research Policy Committee in an effort to bring
together - and emphasize a campus commitment to -
professional and ethical standards that are accepted across
disciplines.

The guidelines "in many cases may seem obvious," according
to the statement, "but all of these matters can be - and
many have in fact been - the occasion of serious problems.
Such problems can best be avoided if all members of our
community are made clearly aware and mindful of the
standards of conduct expected of them."

The statement lays out guidelines in four areas:
instructional responsibilities; handling of data;
authorship, attribution of credit and other publication
practices; and professional conduct. Among the issues
addressed are clear explanations of grading criteria,
falsification of data, plagiarism and ethical treatment of
human and animal subjects.

The senate also discussed proposed amendments to a section
on academic integrity in the Handbook of Policies and
Regulations Applying to All Students.

After extensive discussion on language applying to actions
taken in the wake of student cheating, the document was
referred back to the Conference on Conduct Governance for
further review.