The University Senate Agenda Committee spent much of its meeting time Monday debating over voting procedures following the discussion of a document revision proposal.
The Agenda Committee met in the Applied Technology Building amidst a surprise downpour on Monday morning.
Undersecretary of the University Senate Melanie Turner explained that whenever the senate wants to make a revision to the constitution, each department must read over the revision and approve it. The document that was being discussed at the meeting yesterday was the University Promotion and Tenure Document.
The agenda committee decided that because all the proper committees had approved the revision, it was ready to be voted on. However, they felt that it would be more practical to batch the motion. Batching involves pushing the motion back to a later date.
Assistant Marilyn Buck said she does not support batching because it slows down the process.
"I thought we were trying to get away from batching for that reason, so it wouldn't slow things down," she said.
However, other members agreed that because this revision affects the handbook for next fall, it is not timely to be voted on at this time. Whenever revisions to the constitution are proposed, members of each department must vote on the issue.
Another highlight of the meeting was a discussion of the change the title of Women's Studies to Women's and Gender Studies.
Secretary of the University Senate and Associate Professor of Sociology Carolyn Kapinus explained that this change was meant to broaden the scope of classes that can be taught within the program.
"This allows us to include transgender, asexual and cross-gender people into the discussion," Kapinus said. "Similar programs on other campuses also have a broader title, so this keeps us in line with other universities."
On this grey morning, Senate Parliamentarian David Pearson said that he was expecting a more "black and white" explanation.
"I didn't realize this discussion is really very grey," he said.
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