PUBLICATIONS Inside Illinois Vol. 25, No. 18, April 6, 2006

Two proposals prompt rigorous debate at senate meeting

By Sharita Forrest, Assistant Editor
217-244-1072; slforres@uiuc.edu

Two proposals – one to merge two departments in the College of Engineering, and one to end Unofficial St. Patrick’s Day celebrations in campus area bars – prompted vigorous debate at the April 3 meeting of the Urbana-Champaign Senate.

A proposal to merge the department of theoretical and applied mechanics with the department of mechanical and industrial engineering in the College of Engineering passed 59-49. Discussion began at the senate’s regular meeting March 27 but, when debate was closed to hold a vote at about 5 p.m., some student senators left Foellinger Auditorium so a quorum would not be present, forcing the Senate to reconvene on April 3 at Levis Faculty Center for the vote and to address other agenda items (see accompanying article below).

Senator Mark Roszkowski, business, presented a pre-filed resolution that called for the university to “take affirmative additional steps to prevent” the occurrence of Unofficial St. Patrick’s Day celebrations or other “alcohol-related events” on regularly scheduled instructional days.

Roszkowski said that the event, held by campus area bar owners on March 3 this year, promotes binge drinking, and dramatic increases in the number of participants the past two years have escalated vandalism, assault and other undesirable behavior. The event undermines the educational mission of the university, since it prompts some instructors to cancel classes because of disorderly behavior and poor attendance, Roszkowski said.

“I’m not talking about controlling this event, monitoring the event, mitigating the effects of this event. These have been tried and failed. What I’m talking about is getting rid of this event,” Roszkowski said. “What I think is most important is that the university take an official stand that this isn’t going to happen again. When the university takes that stand, everything else good happens after that, but until the university takes that step we’re going to be in the reaction mode where we’re going to just try to monitor or police it, and it’s just going to get bigger.”

Carol Malmgren, interim registrar and director of facility management and scheduling, reported that celebrators had tampered with fire extinguishers and spray-painted equipment in the Lincoln Hall theater; men’s and women’s restrooms in Foellinger Auditorium were strewn with trash and a pipe was broken, flooding the hall and forcing staff members to close the building by mid-afternoon to keep people out.

“In these times of increasing tuition, tough state budgets, cuts to administrative support and pressures on delivering excellent instruction, the thousands of dollars of university revenues and staff time wasted on Unofficial St. Patrick’s Day is  unacceptable,” Malmgren said.

Chancellor Richard Herman said that police issued 103 citations during the event, 70 to local people and one-third to people from in-state and out-of-state colleges. “We’re becoming a mecca for this kind of activity. There was a death. In my view, there’s got to be a balance between commerce and convenience, safety and the academy. And it is my firm belief that safety and the academy are being sacrificed for the sake of this event,” Herman said, and added that he found it “rather repugnant” that a local bar owner advertised that it was the last day that students could obtain refunds of their Student Organization Resource Fee – a mandatory but refundable $14-per-semester fee that supports the Student Legal Service, the Tenant Union and student organizations  – “and students were queuing just to gather the moneys to go to the bar.”

“It seems to me this does not represent what this university stands for, nor our community,” Herman said. “What do we want to be known as? I know where I stand on this issue.”

Under a friendly amendment proposed by student senator Josh Rohrscheib a commission of students and faculty and staff members will be established to advise Herman on adopting measures to address the situation, with particular emphasis on eliminating academic disturbances and promoting campus safety.

A second resolution, stating that the chancellor should ensure that university police continue current enforcement practices instead of changing the processing of tickets so the Secretary of State would suspend underage drinkers’ drivers licenses for one year, was defeated. Rohrscheib expressed concern that the dean of students’ decision to notify the parents of 48 underage students who were cited breached the provisions of the Student Code and that punitive measures would not deter students’ participation but could have damaging consequences for those who were caught.

A motion that the resolution be referred to the Student Life Committee to provide an opportunity for all interested parties to be heard was defeated.

When a motion was made to close debate and vote, many student senators left the meeting so a quorum would not be present, forestalling a vote until the senate’s April 24 meeting.

In other business, O. Vernon Burton, history, reported that he and Senator Nick Burbules, educational policy studies, had been re-elected as chair and vice chair respectively of the Senate Executive Committee in an online election in which 156 senators voted, the highest turnout in 20 years. Burton proposed that next year the senate hold a question-and-answer session with nominees prior to committee elections.

The Senate Executive Committee will meet during the week of April 10 to discuss the campus strategic plan and prepare feedback for Herman. Senator Dick Schacht, chair of the General University Policy Committee, will develop a response, and Burton told senators to contact SEC members if they had issues they wanted addressed.

Proposals passed by the Senate included:

• A resolution from the Faculty Benefits Committee to contain parking fee increases by recommending that campus parking rates “be set to  generate revenues only for the operational costs of parking lots and structures.”
• Renaming the College of Applied Life Studies to the College of Applied Health Sciences.

TAM-MIE merger approved amid criticism
By Sharita Forrest, Assistant Editor
217-244-1072; slforres@uiuc.edu

A merger of the theoretical and applied mechanics department with the department of mechanical and industrial engineering in the College of Engineering – a proposal that drew sharp criticism from many students and faculty members – was approved at the Urbana-Champaign Senate’s April 3 meeting.

Discussion and voting followed after a motion to postpone the vote until the senate’s April 24 meeting was defeated.

Under the proposal, which was sponsored by Ilesanmi Adesida, interim dean of the College of Engineering, the combined department will be called the department of mechanical science and engineering, which will administer all TAM and MIE degrees. All faculty members in the TAM and MIE departments will be invited to join the new unit, but faculty members who do not wish to do so may request relocation to other units. Pending approval of the University Senates Conference, President B. Joseph White and the UI Board of Trustees, the reorganization will become effective in August 2006.

Many faculty members and students spoke out against the proposal and senate and campus administrators’ handling of the matter, including Senator Richard Weaver, a faculty member in TAM, who urged senators to reject it because they “had not been given all the facts.” Weaver called the proposal misleading and said it reflected a unilateral decision by administrators that was “better characterized as a hostile takeover,” that it “violated due process” and “made a mockery of faculty governance.”

Abbas Aminmansour, chair of the Educational Policy Committee, said that appropriate senate procedures had been followed, including holding a referendum among College of Engineering faculty members, in which 65 percent of tenure-track engineering faculty voted, and 66 percent were in favor of the merger. In the future, the Educational Policy Committee will work closely with college deans and department heads to ensure that proceedings comply with college bylaws and senate statutes, Aminmansour said.

Faculty members – and student senators - expressed many of the same qualms that were raised at a public hearing held by the Educational Policy Committee on Dec. 7, including fears that the TAM program and curriculum would be discontinued or compromised, and that administration had coerced TAM faculty members into transferring to other departments to facilitate reorganization.

Huseyin Sehitoglu, head of MIE, told senators that MIE and TAM worked closely to develop a plan for staffing TAM courses. He also presented data on the structure of mechanical engineering programs and staffing at peer universities – such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University and University of California at Berkeley – none of which has a separate mechanical engineering program.

Engineering faculty members in support of the proposal, including associate head of MIE Charles Tucker, and MIE professors Mark Shannon and Thomas Conry, said the reorganization was a strategic necessity that would strengthen engineering research and education and enhance the programs’ national rankings.

Because of confusion about parliamentary procedures – and to expedite senate proceedings and ensure that people have ample opportunity for discussion – O. Vernon Burton, history, said that a blog or listserv will be created so senators can deliberate issues at length prior to senate meetings.

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