Ohio University faculty who welcomed students back on Monday were welcomed back themselves with their first Faculty Senate meeting of the New Year.
The meeting revolved around creating a bridge committee between the Program Committee of the University Curriculum Council and The Curriculum Committee of the Graduate Council.
Faculty Senate Chair Elizabeth Sayrs introduced a bridge committee that would combine the two existing committees that approve graduate programs.
Under the current system, both the UCC committee and the Graduate Council committee go through the same process separately to approve graduate programs.
“Usually both committees vote the same way, and we want to streamline the process,” Sayrs said.
The bridge committee will consist of three faculty members and one administrator from the UCC committee who will get information from the Graduate Council committee and report back to UCC, Sayrs said.
Both UCC and the Graduate Council have approved the proposal, and faculty will vote on the bridge in February.
Also in attendence was Executive Vice President and Provost Pam Benoit, who presented a possible new scholarship model to the senate.
“We are working on a new sophisticated model that will look at student population and the average financial aid award given to students,” Benoit said.
Benoit also discussed getting feedback from scholarship donors about the possibility of matching donor money for scholarships. Benoit said she plans to talk to previous donors to see if these incentives would increase scholarship money from donors.
The topic of trimesters was also brought up during Benoit’s presentation; she said she is looking into how other institutions have used trimesters. “We want to use the summer more effectively,” she said.
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