A new year of Faculty Senate meetings begin tonight under the leadership of new president Bill Woodman, professor of sociology. He wishes to strengthen the senate’s role in shared governance.

“Traditionally, for the last 500 years the faculty has had a role in the governance of the university,” Woodman said. The principle of shared governance is a cooperation between the administration and the faculty in shaping government policy.

“Last year,” Woodman said, “the faculty was often not informed about issues such as commuter buses for parking, the ISUCard and the McDonald’s in the Hub.”

“Often the faculty doesn’t find out about things until they read it in the paper,” he said. “They never bother to send us a memo about it.”

“When committees are formed that decide issues,” he said, “the administration chooses a member of the faculty without asking the Faculty Senate. Then, “Woodman said, “the administration claims they had input from faculty.”

“They just grab a hold of somebody who just seems to be walking by. Literally,” he said.

He proposed having the Faculty Senate nominate faculty to university committees.

Senator Joanna Courteau, a foreign language professor, said, “I think it’s a time for self-study and re-evaluation of the senate work and senate structure.”

Courteau is a member of the senate’s governance committee and a member of the structure and document subcommittee. “I propose we study very carefully the senate basic document, the constitution and the by-laws to see if it meets the demands of the changing times,” she said.

“I also plan to propose that Provost [John] Kozak revive the now-defunct all-university community council.”

Courteau said that in the past, the council ensured communication among all employee and administrative groups on campus. “The benefit of such a counsel is that it can function as a forum to air new initiatives and as a liason to such groups as the senate, and therefore might prevent such fiascos as those which surrounded the parking issues, the McDonald’s issues, the ISUCard issue, the insurance changes, program discontinuation and others.”

She said she would like to see a change in the time and place of the faculty senate meetings. “I think it is very important to have the meeting during regular work hours so that senate work would be viewed seriously and not as extracurricular activities. Also, we should be visible in a central campus location.”

Courteau favors having the Memorial Union as a new location. “Any faculty member could drop by. We’re not getting many faculty visiting the meetings.”

Woodman said the Faculty Senate is evaluating the Office of the President this year — a function the senate performs every five years. “After we’re finished, they present [the evaluation] to the president and provost, and then forward it to the Board of Regents.” He said the regents should have the evaluation sometime in late spring.

He said he would like to see an extension of the period the Faculty Senate president serves from one year to two and a half years. The new electee would serve one and a half years as president-elect in order to become familiar with the position. He or she would then take over for the outgoing president and serve a year as president.

Concerning his role as president Woodman said, “It’s an awful lot of work. It’s enormously time consuming. I have to put five to six hours a day in with paperwork and meetings. I have to admit it’s very rewarding in the sense that I can help things out and make things better.”

Tonight’s meeting is at 7:30 in Room 260 of the Scheman Building.