The Justice

Media Credit: David Sheppard-Brick Liza Behrendt '11 speaks with Prof. William Kappelle (HIST) as he exits the Olin-Sang Auditorium after last Thursday's faculty meeting. A student protest was organized outside the auditorium after students werenot allowed in.

The faculty passed a unanimous motion last Thursday to establish a committee to consider by March 1 changes to the Arts and Sciences curriculum, cuts to the Arts and Sciences faculty, an increase in undergraduate enrollment and the establishment of an expanded summer session in the face of enormous budgetary constraints, according to several professors and administrators.

The decision came at an emergency faculty meeting marked by student protests and described by professors as the best-attended faculty meeting in years. Students were not allowed into the meeting.

According to Provost Marty Krauss, the committee will consist of nine people appointed by the Faculty Senate and herself. She explained that the committee will be able to set up subcommittees so that there can be representation beyond those nine members, including members of the undergraduate and graduate student bodies. "We're trying to think of the best structure to keep it organized and focused but also inclusive," she said.

Faculty representative to the Board of the Trustees Steven Burg (POL) wrote in an e-mail to the Justice that he was appointed to the committee by the Provost. "While it is impossible to "restructure" the entire University in six weeks … the committee called for by the Faculty Meeting will work assiduously to develop ideas to do as much as is possible and reasonable in the short term" as well as in the medium term.

At a special Board of Trustees meeting that took place yesterday, Burg said that the faculty and student representatives to the Board offered their perspectives on the budget crisis and the Board expressed confidence in the process started by the administration and the faculty.

The emergency faculty meeting was scheduled after senior administrators and the Faculty Senate Council proposed several long-term changes to the undergraduate academic curriculum including the replacement of the current 43 majors and 47 minors with fewer interdisciplinary meta-majors.

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