By Kelsi Peace, Managing Editor
In light of the recent policy changes – among them the alcohol policy and tenure and promotion policy – a document enumerating the policy change process has been proposed as the university tries to navigate the cumbersome process of taking into account students, faculty, staff and administrator
concerns.
Some light was shed on the complexity of the issue when news of the recent change to the alcohol policy broke in the Optimist and not in a memo to faculty and staff.
“I think our administration feels very strongly that communication with the faculty is important,” said Dr. Kim Pamplin, a senator on the Faculty Senate. “I don’t think there was any ill will.”
Regardless, Pamplin did say that communication between the administration and the faculty is paramount, especially when faculty members wish to provide input for policy changes.
“I think [the alcohol policy change] caused some significant reactions among the faculty and staff because a lot of us have strong ties to ACU,” Pamplin said. “This is something more than a job.”
The challenge, Pamplin said, lies in determining when faculty want to offer input and when they ought to offer input. Some decisions, he said, citing faculty tuition discounts, are the prerogative of the faculty.
The Faculty Senate passes resolutions seeking policy changes but also sends members to sit on committees when the Board of Trustees meets and reports back to the Faculty Senate. The next issue at hand will likely be when the Board of Trustees reviews the university policy that all faculty members must be Church of Christ – a topic the Faculty Senate will want to weigh in on, Pamplin said.
During the fall semester, Pamplin said the Faculty Senate considered the faculty and staff tuition discounts with the concern that programs offered online through Embanet did not give any discount. The Faculty Senate passed a resolution asking that the policy be amended to allow the company to cut a profit but some discount to remain.
When tenure and promotion procedures went under review this year, a committee reviewed the procedures, sent its suggestions to the Faculty Senate and when both agreed, the policy went to vote, Pamplin said.
He cited a faculty concern that sounded strikingly similar to one students often feel as well: having a voice. And that voice, Pamplin said, ought to extend beyond academic matters, especially because the classroom is affected by external factors as well. He cited pledging as an example, which is not an academic procedure but nevertheless affects the classroom in the fall.
“We recognize we don’t get to make all the decisions,” Pamplin said. “But we still want input.”
