Faculty Senate Adds New Courses

Faculty Senate added courses in both the undergraduate and graduate programs and plans to review several more course proposals. 

The courses include three law and one public health course, which were voted on and passed at this meeting. 

Despite the approval, new proposals raised concerns about violating standard procedures. 

“‘...you need to provide as part of the curriculum proposal master class schedule for the course, briefly visiting the topics for each class period, for each week of the course.’... that information is missing altogether,” said one of the senators reading from the course proposal requirements. 

Another senator, a Belmont law professor, responded by saying that in this case, it is not necessary to provide a master class schedule for these courses. 

His argument was that students will naturally understand that there will be a difference in syllabus for a two-hour class versus a three-hour class. 

However, the first senator said that this does not matter because the course proposal still violates standard procedure. 

Faculty Senate Vice President Andy Miller reinforced this senator’s statement. 

“…‘provide a master class schedule for the course, briefly with some tasks for each class period, for each week of the course.’ It is verbatim on curriculum. This is not provided. If this is not a requirement you're enforcing anymore, we need to update curriculum,” said Faculty Senate Vice President Andy Miller. 

Despite these concerns, the motion passed unanimously to add these new courses to Belmont’s catalog. 

Faculty Senate President Virginia Lamothe also introduced a motion that will look into safety concerns about increased traffic after opening Wiseman Hall. 

“I move that we ask Student Life Council to investigate faculty and student concerns regarding automobile and foot traffic, as well as parking issues on 15th Avenue, Caldwell Avenue, the Johnson Garage and the roundabout between the Baskin Center and the Ayers academic building...” said Miller. 

Miller went on to say that the Student Life Council will also investigate measures taken to address these concerns, write a report on their findings, and present the report at the Nov. 17 Faculty Senate meeting. 

Provost David Gregory also addressed parent concerns about in-person classes being moved to online. During Preview Day on Saturday, a parent mentioned that this sometimes occurs at the universities which two of her children attend. 

“We're predominantly an in person undergraduate university. There will be times that we will move it online, but it should not be standard of practice. So, if there's areas in your respective college, we need to make sure that gets corrected… I do want to hold them accountable, because that's what the payers are paying for,” Gregory said. 

Faculty Senate will meet again on Oct. 6. 

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This article was written by Olivia Abernathy