Possibly deterred by the snow, not enough professors and student representatives attended the Academic Council meeting on Tuesday to be able to vote on issues.

There must be 61 voting members in attendance to convene a meeting, but by 4 p.m., 45 minutes after the meeting was scheduled to begin, only 59 of those members had appeared.

Acting Provost John Hudzik ended the meeting, urging those in attendance to encourage missing members to come to the next meeting, scheduled for March 22.

"You're all great folks for being here - stay great and get your colleagues to show up," Hudzik said.

The weather is sometimes a factor in keeping people from venturing out to the meetings, said Jon Sticklen, chairman of the Executive Committee of Academic Council and an associate professor of computer science.

"This doesn't happen too frequently, but when it does, it's usually in winter when there is a blizzard," Sticklen said. "We were only two people short, but this isn't horseshoes - being close doesn't matter."

A possible revision to the MSU copyright policy was awaiting discussion and a vote by the council, but now members of the committee who want the change must wait another month.

"I'm disappointed we didn't get a chance to discuss this," said Mary Bresnahan, co-chairwoman of the University Committee on Faculty Affairs and communication professor. "I'd like to encourage colleagues to come because this is an important subject, and I had hoped to get a vote of support.

"We've been working on this for quite awhile - we want to get some closure."

The current policy states that any research done by faculty is first owned by MSU, then ownership is assigned to the creator.

The committee is working to making a distinction in the policy so work done by faculty using substantial university resources would still fall under university ownership, but work done without those resources would be the sole property of the creator.