The Faculty Senate approved a name change to a College of Agriculture and Life Sciences major as well as discussed initiatives to improve campus climate at their meeting Monday night. 

With a majority vote by the Senate, the agricultural biochemistry major will change its name to biochemistry. The Senate also introduced the idea of a feed technology minor. 

At their next meeting, scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 13, the Senate will debate renaming both the major and minor of industrial technology to applied engineering and technology management, which was met by hesitance by some senators.

The Senate also discussed the continuation of both the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE) survey and the campus climate surveys.

COACHE is a faculty satisfaction survey about their experiences at work and academic issues.

In an effort to improve the work climate for Iowa State faculty and staff, the Faculty Senate is looking to improve service delivery at Iowa State.

One way is through the WorkCyte program to enhance and modernize faculty resources. WorkCyte is a cloud-based solution within Workday, which is planned to replace AccessPlus within the coming years.

Yet even with the Faculty Senate looking forward, Peter Martin, Faculty Senate president, reflected on the past month saying it was the “best of times and the worst of times.”

Martin talked about how the Faculty Senate and Iowa State community at large continues to remember the death of Celia Barquin Arozamena.

“[We] hope for a better world and hope for a better community,” Martin said.

Another topic of discussion was the installation of President Wendy Wintersteen. Martin said there was a lot of student involvement regarding the installation and he has high hopes for what is to come.

“While we experience sad and elate events all at the same time, the Faculty Senate also continues to work on important initiatives,” Martin said.