University President George Ross spoke Tuesday of financial woes and transitioning into leadership when he addressed the Academic Senate for the first time.

“I want to let you know that it’s day two and I’ve got it all figured out,” he said, jokingly, to the group gathered in Dow 102.

The Academic Senate voted 26-19 Tuesday to support publishing the Student Opinion Surveys on the Central Michigan University Portal.

The issue now is in the hands of Provost Gary Shapiro, who will review the minutes from the meeting and a request by the Student Government Association for publication of the scores. Shapiro is expected to make a decision on the issue in the next few weeks.

Interim University President Kathy Wilbur’s request for cost centers to devise potential budget cuts has triggered concerns among many faculty members over Central Michigan University’s developing medical school.

The Academic Senate wants to limit class size for the writing intensive courses, but Interim Provost Gary Shapiro said it cannot make that call.

University officials have yet to determine where money will come from to pay back a $619,489 grant to the National Science Foundation.

The Academic Senate voted Tuesday to not add new courses to the University Program until July 10, 2010.

The Office of Information Technology will take initiatives next year to introduce updates to Blackboard and other programs.
Central Michigan University is using version 8 of Blackboard and will upgrade to version 9 next fall.

While Robert Kennedy, Jr. will speak in November on last year’s Speaker Series funding, university officials are uncertain whether they will receive funding for this year.
The series was able to put forth $35,000 from last year’s funding to bring Robert Kennedy Jr. to speak at Central Michigan University Nov. 19.