Faculty Senator email says group "made a poor decision" with passing CUC proposal

4/22/16 5:32pm

In an email sent to the rest of the Faculty Senate and provided to the Thresher, Faculty Senator Jerry Dickens explained his rationale behind voting “no” on the CUC 18-hour credit cap proposal.

In the email, Dickens argued that some changes in the current system are needed, given the late add/drop deadline, pass/fails on distribution hours and grade inflation, in addition to the original issue of students taking a high number of credit hours.

“As [Dean of Undergraduates] John Hutchinson nicely expressed at the March meeting, there is presently a conflation of multiple issues,” Dickens wrote. “I will suggest the situation is somewhat schizophrenic with no obvious overarching plan.”

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Nonetheless, Dickens repudiates claims that student opinion was taken into consideration on reaching this decision.

“It is absolutely absurd to suggest that there was significant student input,” Dickens wrote. “The very fact there were hundreds of students protesting absolutely and unequivocally shows this NOT to be true.”

According to Dickens, the Faculty Senate ought to have voted down the proposal, communicated the multiple issues at hand with the student body before creating another plan for moving forward.

“I remain surprised that the majority of my colleagues on Faculty Senate do not see this,” Dickens wrote. “We, as a group, made a poor decision on Wednesday.”

The moderator of the Faculty Senate mailing list initially did not approve the email to be sent out, stating it was “deemed inappropriate,” but according to Dickens the email was sent earlier today.

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