The Urbana-Champaign Senate’s Committee on Committees is requesting nominations for membership on the Seventh Senate Review Implementation Committee.
The committee is being asked to review the Seventh Senate Review Commission Report this summer and make recommendations to the full senate on implementation of specific items at a fall 2015 senate meeting.
The review of senate government and organizational structures started last year.
The final report is a broad list of recommendations, which were made around the themes of senate membership, Senate Rule 13, senator engagement, the Illinois Open Meetings Act and shared governance.
Recommendations include adding alternate members to improve senate meeting attendance, better enforcement of attendance and committee membership rules, adding “a more uniform mechanism” to elect specialized faculty members and increase academic professional representation, improving document presentations at meetings and creating a post-meeting summary and guide for new members.
“A culture must be created whereby the role of the senate is perceived as critical to the successful functioning of the university,” the report says.
The report also recommends a greater role for the Educational Policy Committee by having it conduct an annual review of the annual campus enrollment management report.
According to the senate constitution, members of the implementation committee must be students or members of the faculty or administration. But the senate notice for committee nominations notes there may be “merit to adding additional members to the committee from categories such as: the academic professional electorate, specialized faculty and emeritus faculty.”
Nominations of those willing to serve should be sent to senate clerk Jenny Roether at senate@illinois.edu no later than noon May 22.
The report can be viewed online.
