At its Tuesday meeting, the Executive Committee of Academic Council passed a motion to hold all Academic Senate meetings in future years on the last Thursday of regular courses during the fall and spring semester.

"We need to set these meetings way in advance," said Muralee Nair, horticulture professor and member of the Executive Committee.

The decision was prompted by the difficulty Executive Committee members had in setting this spring's second senate meeting around both faculty and administrators' schedules.

Academic Senate is a faculty-wide forum that met for the first time in eight years last spring. About 700 attended the meeting.

At a senate meeting on Friday, members were updated on various initiatives discussed last spring, but only about 100 attended.

After dismissing dates during finals week, the Executive Committee finally decided to hold the next senate meeting at 3 p.m. April 26 in the Auditorium.

"If Academic Governance wants faculty participation, you can't make it difficult for them to attend," said Dick Weber, accounting and information systems associate professor and member of the Executive Committee. "Holding the meeting during finals week is the equivalent of having it at 4 p.m. on a Friday."

The Executive Committee also referred to standing committees for comment on the possible move of the Department of Family and Child Ecology from the College of Human Ecology to the College of Social Science.

"The sooner, reasonably, the better, but I don't want folks to feel rushed," acting Provost John Hudzik said.