Faculty Senate Addresses Classfinder and Study Abroad

Faculty senate addressed Classfinder updates and study abroad processes at this week’s faculty senate meeting.  

Faculty senators expressed concerns over Classfinder’s format last semester.  

Anyone could access Classfinder through the Belmont website, which gave details of each class, including the name of the professor and the location of the classes.  

“We talked to the provost’s office about it and decided that we’d like to try to produce a public and private version of Classfinder,” said Senate President Mark McEntire. “Now, if you go through the Belmont website, the columns that say instructor and room number will be empty.”  

This change went into effect last week.  

“There was no particular incident that drove it, but we want people to feel safe and secure,” said McEntire.  

Additionally, representatives from the Office of Study Abroad visited the meeting and shared their goals for the program’s future.  

One goal is increasing the interest and growth among students who want to study abroad.  

“If we want them to be leaders and changemakers of the world, how are they supposed to do that if they’ve never seen it?” said Emma Cate Whitefield, assistant director of study abroad.  

Another goal is to decrease the number of cancelled classes within the program.  

“Last year we launched 61 programs because we had an unprecedented amount of faculty interest, but not all of them made and we only ran 45,” said Marissa Chandler, director of study abroad. “So we’re only launching 46 this year.”  

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This article was written by Anna Blubaugh