Several members of Faculty Council referred to Tuesday as the most promising meeting in the process of approving Faculty Voice Task Force 1, a report that details recommendations for restructuring governance.

According to the approved motion, an executive governance body referred to as the Steering Committee would be established in place of the Executive Committee of Academic Council, or ECAC. The new committee would include five faculty elected at large, plus the chairpersons of all the standing committees.

Supporters of the motion said it would allow faculty to act more quickly in voicing faculty opinions to the MSU Board of Trustees.

Trustee Melanie Foster said she doesn’t know if the board receives enough faculty input, but what they do receive is important.

“There’s a lot of positive input that comes from faculty,” she said.

Jon Sticklen, an at-large member of ECAC, said the purpose of creating the committee is to direct issues within the academic governance system using a group smaller than the current executive committee.

There are six at-large faculty members and seven standing committee chairpersons on ECAC.

Sticklen opposed including chairpersons of the standing committees and said the job of the Steering Committee is to take a whole-system perspective.

“The jobs of (the Steering Committee and standing committees), in my mind, are best accomplished by having the roles of chairperson of standing committees separate and distinct from the role of member of the Steering Committee,” he said.

Sticklen made a motion that would eliminate the chairpersons from the new committee, but it failed by a 12-29 vote.

Forestry professor Dennis Propst said the committee is meant to take action quickly.

“Representation is not a major issue — it’s about the ability to communicate quickly with faculty involved in shared governance at the university,” said Propst, who also opposed the inclusion of chairpersons.

John Powell, chairman of the University Committee on Faculty Affairs, said including standing committee chairpersons is important to having discussions and would give the committees the feeling they have a voice at the executive level.

Sticklen said despite the failure of motions he supported, the meeting was encouraging because so many members took an active role in the discussion.