Faculty members said they were pleased with the role they played in forming the plan for liberal arts reorganization, and they want to make sure they are still involved in the implementation of any changes.
Their involvement was the focus of Tuesday's Faculty Council meeting.
Only the involvement of faculty in the process was discussed. The content of the report will be discussed at the Nov. 23 Academic Council meeting.
Stephen Esquith, philosophy chairman and chairman of the Committee on College Reorganization, presented the report, which outlines two possible options for the structure of the liberal arts programs at MSU.
One option wouldn't currently change the structure of the colleges, but would allow for future change.
The second would establish a new Faculty of Arts and Human Sciences unit that would include the College of Arts & Letters and the College of Social Sciences.
Economics Professor and reorganization committee member Charles Ballard said he thought the committee had "bent over backwards to get lots of faculty input."
Esquith outlined the various meetings that members of the reorganization committee held after the draft progress report was released.
"The tone and content of those meetings varied," Esquith said. "Members of departments were most critical of the idea of reorganization, although it wasn't uniform."
He said some of the most successful ways the reorganization committee received feedback from faculty was through talking to people after they had looked at the draft report.
Some faculty members said they were happy with the amount of participation, although philosophy Professor Richard Peterson said he was curious as to when the committee was going to actually sit down and evaluate the amount of faculty involvement required by April's Academic Senate meeting.
"I just want to understand where we are in this process," Peterson said.
"How are faculty going to be involved in the planning and carrying out of reorganization?"
Esquith said the reorganization wasn't just two suggestions, but also a set of principles and elements to improve MSU's liberal arts education.
"The future of liberal education is going to involve new kinds of collaboration between faculty," he said.
Faculty Council also passed a measure at the meeting that would make it mandatory for each college to establish a re-appointment, promotion and tenure committee.
Although each college already has a committee, Executive Committee of Academic Council Chairman Jon Sticklen said the Tuesday decision would make it policy.
The measure will now go back to the executive committee for further consideration.
