A report that will try to bring an end to a period of miscommunication and misunderstanding that surrounds possible changes to MSU's Academic Governance system will be presented at today's Faculty Council meeting.

The report, called Task Force 1, is a proposal to restructure the governance system in order to allow for greater faculty voice in university affairs.

Today's presentation will be at 3:15 p.m. in the Radiology Building auditorium and will be the first formal discussion about the task force committee's recommendations since the final report was turned in to Faculty Council on Aug. 28, 2006.

One of the recommendations made by the task force is to have a faculty member lead the proposed Faculty Congress, which currently is known as Faculty Council and is headed by MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon.

"The most important thing will be for everyone to understand what Task Force 1 is actually proposing and what it is not proposing," said Debra Nails, a committee member who is speaking at the presentation.

"Task Force 1 wants to make as few changes to governance as it can while making sure that the problems identified by the Faculty Voice Committee will actually be corrected."

That committee, called the Ad Hoc Committee on Faculty Voice, was commissioned in April 2004 following the first Academic Senate meeting in 15 years.

More than 550 faculty members attended to discuss the announcement of the College of Human Medicine's expansion to West Michigan, and then-provost Simon's plan to reorganize the liberal arts programs — initiatives the faculty felt were made without their consent or input.

A year later, the committee recommended creating five task forces to focus on ways to increase faculty voice and involvement in decision-making, including Task Force 1.

Sheila Teahan, president of the MSU chapter of the American Association of University Professors, said it is important for faculty members to attend today's meeting, as its results may have long-term repercussions at MSU.

"The original Faculty Voice Committee said, 'The Academic Governance system constrains rather than facilitates the exercise of faculty voice,'" said Teahan, an associate English professor.

"That's a pretty devastating judgment about the current state of the governance system at Michigan State, which desperately needs reform.

"We're not looking at radical reform. We are looking at some very modest proposals."

Jim Potchen, chairman of the Executive Committee of Academic Council, said the intention is to have a full discussion of the issues surrounding the complicated task force.

"We have to package it in a way that we can have rational bylaws changes, if that's what they require," Potchen said. "The discussion may not turn out exactly as some have envisioned, but that's to be expected of all the task forces."

One factor contributing to the misunderstanding is the fact that many of the Faculty Council members are new and do not understand the events that led up to the creation of the task forces, said Grover Hudson, co-chairman of Task Force 2.

"You really can't get into these issues unless you go back and read the background and read the reports in quality time and talk about them with people," Hudson said. "They are not simple things."

Hudson, a linguistics professor, said today's meeting will help refresh faculty's memory on the topic.

"There will be a good airing of Task Force 1 recommendations by members of Task Force 1," he said. "We've lost a year on task forces 1-4, and that means that the issues have faded in the faculty mind. It makes it that much more difficult to bring these things to people's attention."

Potchen said trust is a key factor in the success of today's discussion.

"Both parties realize there is a need to have a trust relationship because both parties are interested in furthering the institution," he said. "The faculty and administration are not any different in that their needs are to try to make this a better place than we found it."

Nails, a philosophy professor, said she would consider any clarification of the task force a success.

"I don't know what the outcome will be," she said.

"If we can reduce misunderstanding, that would be the outcome we really most want."

Sarah Harbison can be reached at harbiso9@msu.edu.