Academic Senate discusses potential bandwidth sale, WI course requirements.
The Academic Senate debated the decision by the Board of Trustees to apply for eligibility for the auction by the Federal Communications Commission to sell bandwidth from the television spectrum to cell phone companies during its meeting Tuesday.
The vote occurred during the last board meeting in December, but does not obligate the university to participate in the auction.
Several senators raised concerns over the potential loss of CMU Public Television.
Senator Jim Hill asked if the Board intends to go through with the sale. Provost Michael Gealt said he did not know the board’s intent, and encouraged Hill to send his comments to the board via email at trustees@cmich.edu.
Senator Michael Mamp also raised his concerns, saying several professors asked him to bring the issue up.
“I think there is a lot of concern out there in the community on campus about what will happen to our public broadcasting stations, and I’m a little concerned,” Mamp said.
Gealt said he could not discuss the issue due to federal anti-collusion laws.
The board also discussed the Writing Intensive course availability. Mamp mentioned concerns on the university’s ability to provide enough seats in WI courses to accommodate students and ensure they don't have to put off graduation due to required courses being full.
Students are required to complete 12 credit hours before graduating. Mamp said that although the writing intensive class was full, he guessed maybe half of his students were not interested in the course, and that the department had provided extra sections to meet the demand.
Senator Benjamin Heumann told the provost that the current OIT policy regarding registering computers with CMU’s network only allows a few desktops, none of which were suitable for anyone in the College of Science and Technology.
Heumann said to register the computers, they needed would require exemptions. Gealt said Vice President and Chief Information Officer of Information Technology Roger Rehm is aware of the situation, and will be processing exemptions.
The Senate also discussed the removal of the Construction Management program under the School of Engineering and Technology.
Senator Adam Mock, who represents the college, said the opinion within CST was that they could not maintain the program without hiring more faculty.
According to the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee minutes for a meeting in November, the reason for the program’s possible elimination is the lack of long-term faculty. The minutes state the administration would not support the hiring of new faculty, without which the program cannot obtain external accreditation.
Interior Design Professor Jeanneane Wood-Nartker said that several of her students minored in the program and asked if it could become a concentration.
Heumann said the agenda did not mention the minor as part of the program’s deletion, only the Construction Management major. Ultimately, the Senate voted in favor of postponing the decision.
