The Faculty Senate approved a requirement in how decisions for college budgets are made and heard the first reading on two new majors to be voted on during the last meeting of the semester May 7. 

Budget advisory

The Faculty Senate approved a requirement to improve communication when coordinating budgeting at the college and university levels. 

The measure establishes a budget advisory council or committee to advise the dean, with the goal of having the same faculty senator serving both to enhance communication.

Each college has a budget advisory committee that advises the dean on setting the college’s budget. One person on that committee must be on the resource policies and allocation council that meets with the provost to give feedback on the university budget. 

“This is making sure that each college has a committee of faculty that has been established that the dean must talk to about these kinds of things,” Sen. Brian Hornbuckle, a professor in agronomy, said. “[This is] to ensure that a person on that committee is also on a university committee that’s talking about the same thing with the provost, who is in charge of the whole university budget, to make sure that there’s a connection between what’s being talked about in colleges at the university level.” 

New business

The College of Design has proposed a degree in game design, which the Senate will vote on at its May 7 meeting. 

Game design, a bachelor’s degree, is a multidisciplinary field that “refers to the process of creating the rules, mechanics, gameplay and overall structure of a video game, board game or any interactive experience,” according to Senate documents. 

The degree is interdisciplinary, with the proposal stating colleges involved include the College of Engineering, the College of Design, the College of Human Sciences and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. 

Students involved would have the opportunity to design publishable games, develop, critique and analyze prototypes, and more. 

The expected start date for the program is fall 2024. 

Citing an ever-changing education field with career options going beyond traditional classroom teaching roles, the College of Human Sciences is looking to add a bachelor’s in education studies. 

The proposal document lists out-of-classroom settings such as museums, zoos and libraries as areas where interested students may work. 

“For students interested in careers in education and education-related fields outside of classroom teaching, Iowa State University does not currently have an undergraduate degree program that meets their needs,” Senate documents state. 

The degree would be a non-licensure degree.

Changes are proposed to be voted on in the May 7 meeting that would remove references to college-specific policies for academic misconduct in the ISU Catalog and would require that policy for academic misconduct related to grades must be stated in the syllabus for a course.