Faculty Advisory Council Report

The Faculty Advisory Council (FAC) helps convey faculty concerns and ideas to administration . It is also a channel for our administration to ask for feedback from the faculty in turn . Faculty from each college typically serve three years on the council via an election process, and each council member also serves on an internal committee . The humanities faculty members who will represent us in 2017–18 are Blair Bateman, Cecilia Peek, Anca Sprenger, and Charlotte Stanford . These individuals may be contacted to share concerns, ideas, or suggestions to be raised with the FAC as a whole . Brent Webb, who has worked with the FAC for six years as the associate academic vice president for research and graduate studies, has now stepped down from this position and will be returning to full-time faculty work in the Department of Mechanical Engineering . We are grateful for his years of service and we especially acknowledge his efforts in searching for a solution to the journal cuts that are forthcoming at the Harold B . Lee Library, and we appreciate that he took so much time out of his schedule to meet with the FAC on this issue during the 2016–17 year . The teaching committee’s proposal this past year, suggesting that one or more members of the FAC act as faculty representatives on this topic, is also aimed at finding the best solution possible to this difficult situation. Proposals put forth by the FAC from the previous year have borne fruit with the newly developed Title IX policy adopted campus-wide . The campus response to the issue of sexual assault now incorporates an amnesty clause for victims and witnesses of Honor Code violations not directly related to sexual violence . The safety of students against such violence was the faculty’s key consideration in reviewing the language within the new policy . New proposals we sent to the administration for consideration in 2016–17 included not only the research committee’s proposal on increased facultyadministrative discussion over the library journal issue, but also the teaching committee’s suggestion that developing fuller communication between the faculty and testing center would help make testing center use more efficient (especially through improving faculty understanding of the testing center’s limitations). Testing center staff responded positively and will be

available to attend faculty venues and explain policies (such as the need for reasonable time limits and fee days) . Another proposal was made to promote the development of online courses while maintaining the high standards of teaching available in BYU day classes, by making survey data available to faculty developing these courses .