The University Senate met Thursday to discuss various committees' progress in addition to voting to add a new addition to all upcoming syllabi.
Here's a breakdown of the key points of the meeting:
Bias incident language on syllabi
The Senate voted 44-6 to pass legislation from the Student Government Association that requires all course syllabi to include a mention of bias incident reporting.
Professors will be able to include two versions of the bias incident reporting on their syllabi. One has a direct link to the page where students are able to report bias incidents, and the other does not.
Bias incidents can be reported by a student against a professor or a student peer. Once reported, a mediator is found to solve the conflict between the two parties. No legal action is taken in a bias incident report.
The majority of senators in the University Senate are professors. Some asked questions to clarify the proposed legislation, and others shared individual accounts of how the information could have helped their classrooms in the past.
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College of Applied Sciences and Technology dissolution
University Senate will soon vote on if and how to dissolve the College of Applied Sciences and Technology. The vote will be a recommendation on how to take action in the future, not a decision.
Those who vote on the dissolution of the college may also break their vote down into whether to disband individual programs within the department. The vote is expected to take place before the end of March.
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Responsible conduct of research
The Agenda to Research Committee is awaiting a draft from the Office of Research Integrity that aims to ensure that Ball State conduct research in a responsible manner.
This is in response to federal guidelines that instruct universities to conduct responsible research and the need that some senators felt that Ball State should be able to expand upon those guidelines.
Student Government Association update
James Wells, the current SGA president, updated the senate on new developments within student government.
One thing that Wells mentioned was that SGA called an emergency cabinet meeting Feb. 19 regarding the immigration status of current Ball State students.
"Our focus is not trying to get our university to take a political stance but more so to make sure that we are providing the necessary services to reassure our students that they are safe, that this is a welcoming environment," Wells said.
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The next University Senate meeting will be March 30.