Status: Resolutions/Motions Passed
Academic Year(s): 2021-2022
Committee(s): Administration and Budget (CAB), Academic Policy and Planning (CAPP)
Documents
Updates
Presented to the M膩noa Faculty Senate by the Committee on Administration & Budget (CAB) and the Committee on Academic Planning & Policy (CAPP) for a vote of the full Senate on September 15, 2021, a resolution of the 麻豆传媒M膩noa Faculty Senate on faculty governance of curriculum. Approved by the M膩noa Faculty Senate on September 15, 2021 with 49 votes (94.23%); 3 votes (5.77%) opposed and 1 abstention.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Resolution of the 麻豆传媒M膩noa Faculty Senate on Faculty Governance of Curriculum
WHEREAS, the Western Association of Schools and Colleges Senior College and University Commission (WASC WSCUC) WSCUC, in its 2013 Handbook of Accreditation (revised in 2015 and edited in 2018) specifies in its 鈥渃riteria for review鈥 Criterion 3.10: 鈥淭he institution鈥檚 faculty exercises effective academic leadership and acts consistently to ensure that both academic quality and the institution鈥檚 educational purposes and character are sustained.鈥 The guideline for demonstrating compliance with criterion 3.10 states: 鈥淭he institution clearly defines the governance roles, rights, and responsibilities of all categories of full-time and part-time faculty.鈥
WHEREAS, the US Supreme Court has identified academic freedom as a right protected by the First Amendment. As the Supreme Court said in Keyishian v. Board of Regents, 385 US 589 (1967), 鈥淥ur Nation is deeply committed to safeguarding academic freedom, which is of transcendent value to all of us and not merely to the teachers concerned. That freedom is therefore a special concern of the First Amendment, which does not tolerate laws that cast a pall of orthodoxy over the classroom.鈥; and
WHEREAS, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), along with the American Council on Education (ACE) and the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges (AGB), in their 1968 鈥淪tatement on government of Colleges and Universities,鈥 said: 鈥淲hen an educational goal has been established, it becomes the responsibility primarily of the faculty to determine the appropriate curriculum and procedures of student instruction.鈥; and
WHEREAS, the M膩noa Faculty Senate has 鈥渢he responsibility to speak for the faculty on academic policy matters such as: (1) Determining the initiation, review, and evaluation of proposed, probationary, or authorized research, instructional, and academic programs.鈥 (BOR Policy 1.21, B.3.b); and
WHEREAS, 鈥淭he faculty has primary responsibility for such fundamental academic areas as curriculum content, subject matter, and methods of instruction and research.鈥 (麻豆传媒M膩noa Faculty Senate Charter Preamble); and
WHEREAS, the February 5, 2015 agreement between UHPA, the Faculty Senates, and Administration (UHPA/BOR Contract, section R-20, Part 1) specifies that: 鈥淭he University will refer the following topics to Senates 鈥.1) Initiation, review, and evaluation of proposed, probationary, or established research, instructional and academic programs.鈥; and
WHEREAS, the President of the University of Hawai鈥榠 called for a Summer Institute at the System level to brainstorm on General Education, and
WHEREAS, the 麻豆传媒M膩noa Faculty Senate appreciates the President鈥檚 concern for General Education, and
WHEREAS, curriculum decisions for the University of Hawai`i are made by faculty at the campus level, therefore,
BE IT RESOLVED, that the 麻豆传媒M膩noa Faculty Senate reminds the President and the Administration that any results of the Summer Institute, insofar as they involve proposed changes to the M膩noa General Education curriculum and requirements, must come to the 麻豆传媒M膩noa Faculty and, specifically, the 麻豆传媒M膩noa Faculty Senate for discussion and consideration of approval.