As MSU takes the next steps in restructuring the Academic Governance system to increase faculty voice, students may see a decrease in theirs.
At Tuesday’s Faculty Council meeting, the body discussed Faculty Voice Task Force 1, which is the proposed reconstruction of the university’s Academic Governance system.
A motion was brought to the council to approve the creation of a steering committee, but it was tabled.
This committee would replace the Executive Committee of Academic Council, which is made up of administration, faculty and student members. It distributes policies and proposals throughout the governance system.
The current system reserves three seats for undergraduate students and two seats for graduate students. The proposed steering committee would decrease this amount to one undergraduate and one graduate student.
Eric Hinojosa, the ASMSU Academic Assembly chairperson, said the proposed steering committee would limit student voice.
“It would be a lot harder getting student concerns through the governance system,” he said. “Our voting percentages on the agenda-setting body for the governance system would go from 18.75 percent undergraduates to 9 percent.”
An amendment was introduced to increase the amount of student voice in the proposed steering committee but was voted down by the council.
Phylis Floyd, a professor of art and art history, said the discussion of student representation is not the issue at hand — it’s strengthening faculty voice.
“ASMSU pretty much controls their representation, and there are a handful of people that are on every single committee — they don’t want that to change,” Floyd said. “And it’s at the expense of the faculty — the people who have been working here for years.”
Some faculty argue undergraduates and graduates are all students, Hinojosa said. But undergraduates can have very different interests than graduate students.
“Not having another student who is there to make a second (motion) so we can at least debate a motion and talk about it at the steering committee meeting, it’s like a slap in the face” Hinojosa said.
Floyd said it’s good that there is an embrace of student representation at all governance levels.
“But we have been talking about faculty voice this whole time, and all we ever talk about is whether students are represented in these committees,” Floyd said.
Jim Potchen, the chairman of the Executive Committee, disagreed with the decrease in student representation.
“Diversity is our greatest strength and exclusionary behavior is sub-optimal,” he said. “You don’t know who is going to give you the best ideas.”
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