By Stephanie Vosk

The Faculty Senate met last Monday to discuss an assurance that a fully staffed faculty would be maintained throughout the year once the university converts to semesters.

An amendment was put before the senate stating that no faculty member should be forced to teach during three consecutive quarters, but they debated whether these should include one or two summer sessions.

“Some people are concerned that since we are talking about workload, the plan is to increase the workload,” Provost Ahmed Abdelal said.

Abdelal assured the senate, however, this is not the case.

Executive Vice Provost Coleen Pantalone said faculty members should be able to make their own decisions about their workloads to ensure that they have enough time for their research.

“We want faculty to have the time they need to do their research and to stay on top of their profession,” Pantalone said, “which was the reason that there was this prohibition in teaching too many terms in a row.”

Pantalone said that having committed faculty on board during the summer is vital to the university.

“If we have faculty that are willing to teach either summer/fall or spring/summer, then we should be encouraging some of that,” she said. “We do want some very committed faculty to be available to students during the summer.”

The first resolution passed decided that if a faculty member starts the year late, then the situation will be judged on a case-by-case basis to decide whether that year will count towards tenure.

Other discussions focused on what a faculty member should be paid for teaching during the summer, but a decision has yet to be reached.

“I think my main objective over achieving these discussions is to make sure we have a university policy which then can be applied at each college, and then each college and each department will develop its own specific approaches to workload,” Abdelal said.

The Senate Agenda Committee and other committees will meet during the interim weeks before the senate meeting to discuss these issues further. The senate will also be discussing the allocation of resources at the next meeting.

“From my perspective, since the resources are limited, what we might accomplish this year is quality [in terms of programs we already have],” Abdelal said.

The provost and Senior Vice President of Administration and Finance Larry Mucciolo will be presenting the proposed annual budget to the faculty senate on Feb. 10.