The University
Senate of Michigan Technological University
PROPOSAL 13-14
(revised 12-11-13)
(Voting
Units: Full Senate)
“Improving Communication
with the Board of Control”
Introduction
The Board of Control, the
University Administration, and the University Senate of Michigan Technological
University all work for the wellbeing of the university from different
perspectives. Yet, occasionally, communication among these three entities
breaks down, leading to an unhealthy climate that is detrimental to the university.
This proposal requests that the Board of Control (BOC) make two changes that
will improve communication between itself and the University Senate.
Request 1
In April 1994, the Senate
approved a policy on tobacco use on campus that became a university policy for
implementation starting September 1, 1994. In July 2010, the BOC, at the
request of Administration, gave the authority on tobacco use to the
Administration, which changed the policy and administration decided to make the campus tobacco free starting September 1, 2013. The
Senate, which represents a diversity of perspectives and concerns, was excluded
from this decision-making process. This reinforced the view on campus that the
BOC and the Administration talk about shared governance but do not believe in
it. It also raised the question as to the purpose of creating university policies
if such policies can be discarded or changed unilaterally by the Administration.
This view was a source of anger and dismay at several Senate meetings, starting
in November 2012. Had the Senate been consulted before the decision was made,
it almost certainly would have supported the ban, and this needless irritation might
have been avoided. A simple mechanism that the Senate uses for decision making,
if adopted by the BOC, would prevent future occurrence of such a break in communication;
hence,
The Senate requests that the BOC treat any non-emergency change in or
creation of university policy as new business that is not voted on at the
meeting during which it is introduced. The BOC will direct the Senate to
provide its input on such proposals before voting on them during a subsequent
meeting.
Request 2
In July 2010, the BOC made
changes in the description of the University Ombuds. When the process to find a
new University Ombuds started this year, the Administration discovered that the
current University policy did not reflect the changes made by the BOC. The Senate
will revise the policy to conform to BOC policy. To avoid such discrepancies
and to make changes in a more timely manner in the future,
The Senate requests that the BOC send to both the Senate and the
Administration a list of changes made to BOC policies so that the Senate and
the Administration might implement these changes in a timely fashion.
Introduced to Senate: 11 December 2013
Friendly Amendment: 11 December 2013
Approved by Senate with friendly amendment: 22 January 2014
Presented to Board of Control: 20 February 2014
Board of Control endorsed "Principles of Communication" in place of Proposal 13-14: 02 May 2014