A committee formed last spring to get faculty and administration working together now has its members placed.
The Ad Hoc Committee on Faculty Voice, the idea of which was formed at the Academic Senate meeting in April, is a temporary committee which works to improve communication between professors and university officials.
English professor and committee member Kenneth Harrow said the committee will help faculty be involved in university decisions.
"We want faculty to be a part of the process of communicating with the other organs of the university," he said. "We don't just want them to be in touch and saying things, but we want to have a process in which faculty have real input."
The committee members were elected a few weeks after a letter was sent saying the faculty were not involved in university decisions from the American Association of University Professors.
Business Professor and committee on faculty voice member Michael Moch said the committee will work to improve those relationships, but added the letter doesn't acknowledge the work committees have done to make improvements.
"Well, the purpose of the committee is to try and help (communication), but the letter didn't acknowledge the level of communication that exists," Moch said.
A committee with the same name already exists. An informal Ad Hoc Committee on Faculty Voice was created in April.
According to that committee's chairman Scott Michaelsen, the Executive Committee of Academic Council took the name of his committee and gave it to the new committee, effectively creating two Ad Hoc Committees on Faculty Voice.
Jon Sticklen, executive committee chairman, said the official committee on faculty voice will inform faculty of different issues and also help them take action.
"It's how can faculty be better informed and how can governance be sure they are informed," he said. "Once they are informed and mobilized, how can their common feelings be best expressed."
Sticklen said he believes the official committee is important because faculty wanted it.
"It's really important that it came from Academic Senate because it's the largest body of faculty on campus," Sticklen said. "That means the voice committee has a very strong mandate."
