The Faculty Senate heard the second reading and voted on the certificate in risk management and insurance and the certificate in real estate at its meeting Tuesday. The Senate also listened to the first readings of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering (CCEE) Renaming Focus Area, FH 10.9 Policy on IP of Educational Materials and 7.2.2.1.1 Consenting Relationships.
Certificate in real estate
The Senate heard the second reading of a program proposal for an undergraduate certificate in real estate.
According to the program proposal, “The Department of Finance offers an undergraduate certificate in real estate. The certificate will give students, regardless of major or college, a deeper understanding of real estate’s legal, economic and financial aspects. This offering is not intended to significantly alter the course offerings or resources needed to support the certificate. Instead, the certificate will allow students interested in real estate to signal their expertise and focused study in the real estate industry to potential employers.”
Many senators expressed their concerns about the name of the program and the targeted student audience.
“I would urge fellow senators to think carefully about the name of this proposal because what you are doing if we name this ‘real estate’ is we are precluding any future certificate program that bares on real estate from being similarly named, and its representative from CRP [Community and Regional Planning] seems to indicate that they’re more stakeholders than just finance students,” Sen. Annemarie Butler, associate professor of philosophy and religious studies, said.
The Senate voted to send the motion to an academic affairs council: 26 senators were in favor, and 24 were not in favor.
“I am not going to tell anyone how to vote, but I don’t think that was the right place to send it because the program proposals start at the department level, and what the department faculty voted on was this name,” Sen. Tony Townsend, associate professor of information systems and business analytics, said.
The Senate then voted to return the program proposal certificate to the finance department instead of academics affairs: 28 senators were in favor, and 23 were not in favor.
Ultimately, the program proposal for an undergraduate certificate in real estate did not pass the second reading and will be returned to the finance department for renaming.
Certificate in risk management and insurance
The Senate heard the second reading for a program proposal for an undergraduate risk management and insurance certificate.
According to the program proposal, “The Department of Finance offers an undergraduate certificate in risk management and insurance. The certificate will give students a deeper understanding of personal and corporate risk management and the insurance industry, regardless of major or college. This offering is not intended to significantly alter the course offerings or resources needed to support the certificate. Instead, the certificate will allow students interested in risk management and insurance to signal their expertise and focused study to potential employers.”
The program proposal passed unanimously.
Additional measures
The Senate heard the first readings for three new bills which will be voted on at the next Senate meeting.
The first was CCEE renaming focus area, meaning a proposal to rename a civil engineering graduate degree specialization department of civil, construction and environmental engineering.
The second was FH 10.9 Policy on Intellectual Property of Educational Materials, meaning replacing all of section 10.9 in the institutional Educational Materials Policy with a link to the language in the Policy Library. In addition, it will rename the section to mirror the name given in the Policy Library.
The third was c. 7.2.2.1.1 Consenting Relationships, which was proposed to eliminate all of the FH section 7.2.2.1.1 Consenting Relationships, and replace it with a hyperlink to the Policy Library’s complete section.
The next Faculty Senate meeting is slated for Dec. 10.
