The Senate will lose four members going into the spring semester.
MANHATTAN.EDU/COURTESY
By Brooke DellaRocco, News Editor
The first senate meeting of the spring semester discussed the loss of four senators, as well as the plans moving forward with the Kakos School of Arts and Sciences (KSAS).
Four senators will not be continuing in the senate including former dean of the School of Liberal Arts Cory Blad, liberal arts faculty member Martha Mendez-Baldwin, student speaker Jason Weaver and student secretary Finn Malone.
Kashifuddin Qazi, Ph.D., speaker for the Manhattan College senate, announced the conclusion of their terms at the forefront of the meeting.
“Unfortunately, the next thing I want to discuss is that for the last couple of weeks, I have received separate emails from senators who cannot continue on the senate this semester,” Qazi said. “I, of course, would like to thank them for their service.”
With the absence of two student senators, one dean senator and one faculty senator, Qazi spoke of reaching out to those constituencies and finding replacement representatives for the senate.
Rani Roy, interim provost, was absent from the meeting, sending associate provost Kelly Marin to deliver the Educational Affairs Committee (EAC) report on the development of KSAS. Questions were raised about the status of layoffs moving forward, the college’s university application and the nursing program.
“It was reported that most departments now have a chair,” Qazi said. “KSAS is going to be working towards a new five-year vision and is working on a core curriculum honors program, the summer camp, etc.”
Although Marin was unable to provide any information on the nursing program or university application, she did shed some light on the layoffs at MC and plans moving forward including President Milo Riverso.
“My hope is that there will not be any more layoffs moving forward,” Marin said. “Conversations are happening now. The president, the CFO, and the provost did meet with the chairs last week. It was a brainstorming session.”
Ideas that were put forth by faculty will be compiled with other ideas sent to President Riverso directly and are in discussions currently.
“Those ideas are being compiled, reviewed and prioritized,” Marin said. “The deans are contributing to identifying priorities. I believe we will know more at that rescheduled convocation.”
With the restructuring of schools and the ongoing changes, the senate’s structure will also be altered regarding the distribution of faculty senators.
Previous bylaws state that there must be at least one faculty representative from every school present at each meeting, and a total of 11 faculty senators in all. In previous years, the senate has held two faculty senators per school, but now with only three schools to derive faculty senators from, they are instituting an ad hoc committee for proposing restructuring of faculty representation in the senate.
These proposals will be brought forth at the next meeting and decided upon.
Marin announced that Global Engagement’s European Credit Transfer Accumulation System (GECTS) has been approved, which further enables study abroad opportunities for students and transferable credits.
“Manhattan College students studying at European partner institutions that use GECTS can transfer in their Study Abroad credits using a defined scale equivalency now,” Marin said.
Looking ahead, it was announced that President Riverso will be attending the April 16 meeting to answer any and all questions regarding recent changes at the college.