An early meeting of the Faculty Council was held Tuesday to inform faculty representatives of the latest news with Academic Governance and to stress the need for maximizing the faculty's voice in the university.

New task force proposals included a review process for administrators, a review process for academic programs, communication and transparency and a fixed-term faculty role in governance.

"This is a relay team - now we are going to pass the baton on to you," executive committee subgroup chairperson Ann Larabee said.

After an Academic Senate meeting last October, a group of administrators and committee chairs met to make suggestions on how to improve communication between administrators and faculty. This group became known as the Faculty Voice Committee, and its work was compiled into a report that Larabee took into consideration for a summer Executive Committee of Academic Council subgroup.

Throughout the summer, Larabee met with other subgroup members to look specifically at the recommendations made as part of the report. As a result, the Faculty Voice Committee moved to have the Faculty Council meeting early to share the next tasks at hand for the members.

While the goals of these task forces were outlined for the council, no action was scheduled Tuesday.

Jon Sticklen, chairperson of the Executive Committee of Academic Council, said that the next action taken by the Faculty Council members was to go to their constituents and relay all the information regarding the new task forces and the nominations needed to fill their seats. However, some group members expressed concern with the time frame laid out and who can be involved in these nominations.

The presented deadline had nominations for task force positions due this Friday, but council members said they felt crunched for time because of busy schedules. An almost unanimous approval pushed this deadline back a month.

Until the next meeting, members are urged to share new proposals for the task forces with their constituents and begin thinking about possible seat nominations on the task forces.