Senate votes to approve new shared governance

A recommendation to support the Shared Governance Process Change proposal was approved Friday afternoon by the Faculty Senate after weeks of dispute over the proposal's detailing.

Twenty faculty senators were in favor of sending the recommendation, while six faculty senators were against it. The recommendation will be sent to university officials for consideration before the university submits the proposal to the ASU Board of Trustees.

According to the proposal, the proposed changes will streamline and clarify the current shared governance process, which it said was lengthy and cumbersome.

University officials previously held town hall meetings with both faculty, staff and students to discuss the proposed changes to the Shared Governance Process and answer any questions over it.

Previous faculty concerns with the proposal included wording and guidelines for how it would operate over the summer. In other business the Faculty Senate also heard from three guest speakers at the meeting, which included Dean Bieneke, dean of the College of Education.

Bieneke handed out his response to previously announced "misperceptions" with the ASU/ Higher Education Holdings Partnership.

ASU is partnering with the Higher Education Holdings, HEH, to offer a online master of science in education in educational theory and practice degree. It would be a non-licensure track of the degree to assist pre-school through twelfth-grade teachers in furthering knowledge and in their preparation of receiving a national board certification.

"It is also unfortunate that departmental discussions of the concerns regarding the HEH delivery venue were aired in the Faculty Senate meeting Oct. 3, 2008. Many of the department faculty members were unaware that this was going to occur," Bieneke wrote.

Bieneke wrote, "This airing happened on a Friday before the Monday that faculty and HEH facilitators were meeting to deal with the concerns and start initial work on the remaining courses in the METP."

"In other words, the internal process by which department faculty were dealing with these issues was preempted by the presentation to the senate and the ensuing fallout," Bieneke wrote.

Concerns with the partnership include courses, faculty involvement and the lowering of 36 hours to 30 hours. Bieneke said he was willing to answer further questions raised at a later date - after everyone had a chance to read his written response.