Dates

• Usage: 1967 - 1980

Biography

During his final year in office, President Michael P. Walsh, SJ, established a committee to draft a blueprint for a University Academic Senate (UAS), intended to involve the faculty more directly in University decision-making. Prior to this, the University Council - composed of the President, the Financial Vice President, the Deans, and the Director of Libraries - was the only body besides the Board of Trustees that advised the President, and only the Trustees held legislative authority. The drafting committee, which included Academic Vice President Charles F. Donovan, SJ, along with Robert F. Drinan, SJ (Law), Paula Fellows (Nursing), Walter Greaney (Management), John Mahoney (English), John Schmitt (Education), Robert White (Weston College), and John Willis, SJ (Arts and Sciences), settled on a 3:2 ratio of faculty to administrative members and, after debate, two seats for student representation. The proposed charter went to the full faculty for ratification in March 1968, receiving 51 percent approval of the entire faculty (82 percent of those voting).

The UAS was organized that fall, after W. Seavey Joyce, SJ, had succeeded Walsh as president. At its first meeting, on October 5, 1968, the Senate established standing committees on Curriculum and Educational Policy, Admission and Academic Standards, Academic Development, Academic Freedom and Responsibility, Student Affairs, Faculty Welfare, and Finance Information. Student objections to the initial two-seat allocation, condemned by some as tokenism, led to student representation being increased to 25 percent of the body; students remained unable to vote on budgetary matters.

In 1973, the UAS established an Action Committee to evaluate its past impact, present operation, and future role. Its report criticized the vague terms under which the Senate shared in University governance and recommended excluding the President and administrators whose responsibilities were directly academic from voting membership, converting apportioned administrative seats to ex officio status, and reducing the number of student seats (with graduate students limited to a single seat). The President's veto authority was retained, with a new provision allowing him to consult with the Senate before exercising it. Faculty and student referenda ratified these changes in 1975, after which the Senate no longer reported directly to the President.

Faculty confidence in the UAS continued to decline, and a separate senate for the College of Arts and Sciences faculty was established in late 1976. In September 1980, the University Academic Council and the Faculty Council replaced the UAS, ending the Senate's legislative role in favor of bodies offering the Academic Vice President and Dean of Faculties access to broadly based advisory input without legislative authority.

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