Almost unanimously, The University of Memphis Faculty Senatevoted not to pass a motion encouraging professors to change the waythey choose textbooks for their courses.
The four-part recommendation, brought to the floor by theAcademic Support Committee, met with resounding grievances Tuesday.Each of the parts addressed questions raised by U of M ProvostRalph Faudree. The proposed recommendation called for a Web pagethat would help students find the correct resources for theirclasses.
The second part urged professors to take four items intoconsideration when selecting textbooks for their class -- cost,optional materials, modular return policies and electronic versionsof textbooks.
The recommendation also suggested the use of electronic textbookdistribution, but many senate members were opposed to most of thetopics brought up in the recommendation.
All four parts failed when put to vote in the senate.
"I believe the faculty saw the motion as an interference withthe faculty's right to pick the right book for the class," saidDavid Ciscel, faculty senate president.
In other business, Ciscel reported on his meeting with theprovost, which included discussions on evening summer classes andcourse repetitions.
The recommendation of changing exams scheduled for Friday nightsduring the summer to Thursday nights to not interfere withstudents' religious obligations will be implemented in summer2005.
However, these changes may be initiated for this summer ifprofessors extend each class by 10 minutes, which would allow themto have the exam on Thursday night instead. This would only bepossible if the students are in favor of the change.
Ciscel reported that the provost is also in favor of the classrepetition recommendation passed during the last senate meeting,allowing a student to repeat courses a total of five times in theircollege career as opposed to the current policy, which has nolimitations. The change would only affect students under the2004-2005 catalogue year.
Ma'te Wierdl, associate professor of mathematical sciences,proposed for the faculty senate to support his effort to raisemoney to resurrect the now defunct Chinese and Russian programs byasking faculty members to donate money for the cause. A substitutemotion was passed on the recommendation asking it to be reviewed bythe faculty policies committee.
