In its first meeting of the year, the Faculty Senate approved revisions to Section 10.8 of the faculty handbook Tuesday in the Sun Room of the Memorial Union. This section deals with the development of courses and curricula, outlining when and if approval from the colleges, senate, deans, provost, president or Board of Regents is necessary when making changes within a program.

The revisions will eliminate ambiguity by separating the voting roles of departments and interdepartmental programs and colleges and separately describing the votes required for program approval and program discontinuation, according to the 10.8 proposal.

These revisions were proposed in accordance with the changes to Section 3.4, or Nonrenewal or Termination of Appointment, which the senate approved last year.

Before the senate voted to approve the revisions to 10.8, Annemarie Butler, assistant professor in philosophy and religious studies, motioned for an amendment to the section dealing with elimination of programs within a department.

“I would like to see a required departmental approval of [the elimination of departments],” Butler said.

Historically, faculty members vote to close programs that are inactive and there are no objections, but the current document would allow for the closure of programs by other bodies, such as deans, without faculty approval. Butler suggested including some language giving faculty members an opportunity to protect their programs and essentially their jobs.

“I would welcome modifications to the amendment that maybe the rejection by the department could be overturned by some supermajority of faculty senate,” Butler said.

Anthony Townsend, assistant professor in supply chain and information systems, seconded the motion which passed 39-29.

“We wanted to be sure that if there was something that was going to cost people jobs, it wouldn’t be decided by a simple one-vote margin,” Townsend said.

The revised Section 10.8 passed, tying up the last loose end from last year.

The senate also approved the proposal for a Masters in Industrial Design and discussed the importance of the recruitment and retention of students with Vice President of Student Affairs Tom Hill.

Faculty Senate’s next meeting is Oct. 12 in the Great Hall of the Memorial Union.