Academic
Senate debates policy
By
Daniel Frias
On-line Forty-Niner
The
Academic Senate voted unanimously Thursday
to postpone approving a course syllabus
policy for all Cal State Long Beach professors
and lecturers.
Senators
could not agree on specific wording of the
policy and asked that they be allowed to
discuss the course syllabus policy with
the rest of their colleagues in their department.
"Sounds
like there are a lot of issues," said
Tom Stevenson, a member of the Education
Policy Council. "We're finding a lot
more people want to be involved in the decision.
It will take more time, but it will be a
better policy in the end. I think more people
will be happy with [the policy]."
Leading
the way for postponement was Sen. Elyse
Blackley of the department of women's studies
who said she felt the decision on accepting
such a policy extended beyond the Academic
Senate and should involve all faculties
because it affects everyone.
Other
senators agreed and Sen. Wiliams Johnson
of the department of philosophy moved to
postpone making a decision on the policy
until March 18 of next year.
The
senators then voted 18 in favor and 13 against
to postpone the decision until next year.
Many
senators including Gladys Garcia from the
department of Chicano/Latino studies agreed
with the decision.
"It
was a very good decision because it affects
all the faculty and staff," Garcia
said. "Everyone needs to be involved
in the decision. We need to have more input
from our lecturers."
The
policy was written by Stevens and the Education
Policy Council to clarify issues of what
is expected of students at the university.
"Our
main concern was that we wanted students
to know what is expected of them early on
and to clarify that in written form,"
Stevens said. "We believe students
have a right to know what is expected of
them. Different kinds of classes have different
assignments."
It
was those differences that caused some controversy
in the wording of the policy. Many
senators disagreed on what exactly should
be included in the course syllabi policy.
One
issue of concern was the wording on amendments
Sen. Margaret Merryfield of the College
of Natural Sciences and Mathematics proposed
to the syllabus policy.
At
issue was amending a line in the course
syllabi policy that read "types and
sequence of assignments and basis for assigning
grades" to read "types and sequence
of assignments and basis for assigning course
grades."
This
amendment was voted on and passed.
The
next amendment proposed involved the same
sentence only this time Sen. Merryfield
wanted to expunge the word "sequence"
and replace it with "projected due
dates," to make the amendment read
"types and projected due dates of assignments
and basis for assigning course grades."
Merryfield's
explanation for this was that students need
the due dates in order for them to be able
to plan their lives according to their school
schedule.
If
due dates were written in syllabi teachers
would have a hard time sticking to those
dates because sometimes concepts take longer
to learn especially in classes such as physics
and mathematics, said Sen. Wayhmen.
After
much deliberation on the issue it was put
to a vote and the senators rejected having
the words "proposed due dates"
put into the amendment of the course syllabi
policy.
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