Faculty gathered in Cole Assembly Room on Tuesday to discuss the departure of Provost Peter Uvin, implementation of a modified academic calendar beginning in 2016 and a proposal to expand pre-registration to four weeks.
President Biddy Martin spoke about Uvin’s arrival at the college and his work during his two-year tenure. She said that the provost position was originally created to alleviate administrative strain from the office of the dean of students, coordinate projects with other institutions, focus on the diversity of the student body and help the administration develop long-term strategic plans. Martin said that she decided to eliminate the position of provost after Uvin leaves because she felt the position was not given enough authority to pursue all of those goals.
With the position eliminated, the college operations formerly supervised by the provost will be relocated to different offices. The Center for Community Engagement will be moved to the Office of the Dean of Faculty. Director of the Multicultural Resource Center Mariana Cruz will become the interim diversity officer. The Office of Study Abroad has not yet found a new location.
The faculty then discussed revising the academic calendar from 2016 to 2019. Professors from the theater and dance, music and mathematics departments said that they had not been adequately consulted about the prospective adjustments by College Council, which was in charge of coordinating the new calendar with academic departments. The faculty decided by hand vote to return the proposal to College Council for further consideration.
Professor of Economics Adam Honig, representing the Committee for Educational Policy, presented a proposal for a three-year pilot program to improve pre-registration. He said that the aim is to reduce the number of schedule changes that students make during add/drop week, as well as the number of students dropped from classes late in the registration process. In the new plan, advising and pre-registration would be a four-week process. The first week would remain advising period, while the second week would be a first round of pre-registration, in which caps on class sizes would not be enforced. The third week would be called “roster management week,” and during this week, the registrar would inform students and faculty of potential overflow in classes. There would also be a chance for faculty to offer brief samples of their courses. The fourth week would then be a second round of pre-registration during which caps on class sizes would be enforced. The plan is intended to decrease the strain of add/drop week by extending the registration process the semester before. The faculty agreed to postpone voting on the proposal until the second faculty meeting of the fall semester.
