At today’s Academic Senate meeting, more cracks formed in the shared governance of Stan State. But as shared governance continues to decline, Stan State continues to expand with talks of a possible new college.
“Creating College of Health and Human Services,” Provost Richard Olge said.
Ogle touched on the history of Stan State and mentioned that the University once had a College of Health and Human Services.
When talking about updates regarding this topic, Ogle made it clear that the region that Stan State serves reflects regions that are often made fun of for their lack of health care and human behavior services.
Ogle emphasized that they plan to follow Stan State rules when it comes to establishing a new college, and will continue to have the Academic Senate further involved in conversation. He hopes to have them vote on the matter in future meetings.
California Faculty Association President Dave Colnic had a few things to say about this possible new addition, which brought the senate from excitement to skepticism.
“I’m excited about this,” Colnic said when talking about the new college.
“I’m glad this came to us. We mention we are not in the beginning. My conception of shared governance is that we need to be involved in the beginning. This is upside down in my opinion.”
Although excited about this possible new college making its way to Stan State, he is disappointed and not satisfied with how the process has already started.
Shared governance, to Colnic, means that they are involved before conversations take place, not after changes can no longer be made.
Today’s meeting also saw the voting on two reading items from last week. The Studio Art concentration discontinuation and the revision to course module scheduling policy for the Stockton campus.
Revisions to the scheduling policy is intended to make classes more flexible by allowing the scheduling of non-cohort courses in one-day-a-week and two-days-a-week modules before 4 p.m.
The rationale for this revision is not only the increased flexibility for students, but also for faculty.
The senate voted on this item but did not disclose the voting information out loud and kept it private.
The second reading item had to do with the discontinuation of the Studio Art concentration.
The discontinuation is due to the concentration requirements are already part of the Art History major.
The senate voted and again did not disclose the decision to the whole meeting, instead opting to keep the vote to the Zoom chat.
