As MSU seeks to update its academic governance bylaws, ASMSU officials are expressing concern about potential changes that could limit student input in the governance process.
A potential revision to the bylaws requiring the University Committee on Curriculum, or UCC, to bring all action items directly to Faculty Council undermines student voice, ASMSU Academic Assembly Chairperson Kristy Currier said.
Although faculty should have the power to make choices on issues affecting them, Currier said students have the right to express their opinions as well.
“The faculty is saying they didn’t have enough voice,” Currier said. “The changes they want shouldn’t come at the expense of the student voice.”
ASMSU is MSU’s undergraduate student government.
Faculty Council sent a version of its bylaws back to the University Committee on Academic Governance, or UCAG, for further review and revision at its Jan. 19 meeting. The proposed revisions mean Academic Council would hear of any action taken on UCC action items from the Faculty Council.
Academic Council, one of MSU’s governing bodies, participates in major issues relating to educational policy.
The body consists of MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon, MSU Provost Kim Wilcox, university deans, faculty and students. Students make up about one-third of the council, said Dillon Lappe, Academic Assembly’s vice chairperson for external affairs.
“(The faculty) probably didn’t realize how much it would affect us,” Lappe said. “We don’t think anyone is trying to slight the students … but it’s important to us.”
UCAG chairwoman Susan Kendall said curriculum choices are a faculty concern and issues about MSU curricula pass through other Academic Governance committees with student representatives.
“It seems like if (students) want to say something they should say it at the beginning,” Kendall said.
She said a revised version of Academic Governance’s bylaws will not prevent groups from reporting to Academic Council.
“It is not that (UCC) can’t report out or give information, but things that are specifically in the purview of the faculty should go to faculty,” Kendall said.
Lappe said student government representatives voice their concerns, which include the clarity and timeliness of information in committee reports, during the bylaws’ revision process.
“It’s just that we would like the next step to the greater university body to be the one with students on it,” he said. “We want to hear about it directly instead of hunting down secondhand word of mouth.”
Currier said it’s important for students to have a voice in the governance system, even if they can’t make changes.
“People go to Academic Council as a last-ditch,” Currier said. “The curriculum is very important … even if we can’t reject a change or item, we can have our voice represented and out there to the public.”
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