Provost Steve Goldstein '78 and Chair of the Faculty Senate Prof. Timothy Hickey (COSI) presented a pilot plan to increase faculty representation on the University Advisory Council during last Thursday's faculty meeting.

According to the Faculty Handbook, which can be found on the Faculty Senate's website, the provost appoints six faculty members to the UAC which provides advice to the provost concerning appointments and reappointments of academic officers and whether to launch or terminate departments, programs or other "academic units." In addition, the UAC can provide advice on separate matters such as academic policies, university research and education development, organization and the University budget if requested to do so by the administration, as well as help draft legislation.

Goldstein said that the pilot plan would expand the UAC to include six original members appointed by the provost, as well as the chairs of the four school councils, the chairs of the University Budget and Undergraduate Admissions and Financial Aid Committees and 13 members of the faculty cabinet, which would be a subset of the UAC.

At the meeting, Goldstein said that he wanted to bring together faculty and the administration, "empower" the UAC and give it a "more central role" in the University while staying in accordance with the Faculty Handbook.

"Coming in as a new provost, ... it seemed like a good time to make sure we had strong faculty representation on [the council]," said Goldstein in a phone interview with the Justice.

According to Hickey during the faculty meeting, if the pilot plan was successful, legislation would be introduced in the spring to permanently expand the UAC.

According to Goldstein, the pilot plan will also indicate if the structure of the an expanded UAC should be altered in any way before legislation is proposed.

At the faculty meeting, Goldstein answered questions and discussed concerns raised by faculty members.

One concern addressed was the impact the appointed committee would have on elected bodies in the Senate. Goldstein stated that the expansion of the UAC is not meant to undermine other committees on the Senate.

Goldstein said that he felt that the faculty members were not involved enough and that the purpose of the UAC was to provide him with a consultative resource.

"There are standing committees and ad hoc committees that evaluate various aspects of the institution," said Goldstein. "This [council] will provide, I think, a strong place to bring the results of those evaluations to try and and take the information and move forward."