U-C Senate passes resolution supporting MAP grants

In light of the Illinois General Assembly reconvening this month, the Urbana-Champaign Faculty Senate unanimously passed a resolution supporting the restoration of Monetary Award Program (MAP) grants for University students. Upon approval, University Chancellor Richard Herman said the senate would take the resolution to Gov. Pat Quinn at the MAP grant rally on campus this Wednesday.

"We have some 6,000 students on campus who receive MAP grants," Herman said. "The cut amounts to $30 million across the entire University. It'd be impossible for us to simply make up the funds."

He also said the fight to keep the grants was interesting given the University's month-long celebration of the original Morrill Act, which was signed in 1862 to help create land grant colleges and improve access to higher education.

"It's ironic to be celebrating the Morrill Act, which was all about access (to federal grants), and be faced with this (MAP grant) issue," Herman said.

Herman said with the MAP grants slashed in half, University students will need to take out loans in the spring. Many students may not be able to return in the fall if the federal government eliminates MAP grants altogether, he added.

In contrast, a topic that left the senate divided was an issue about the U-C Senate's constitution, specifically, an article pertaining to faculty representation. Under the constitutional guidelines, tenured faculty and student electorates are the only members recognized with a direct voice and vote in the U-C Senate. An amendment to the constitution is under study, and it has potential to create a third electorate body in the U-C Senate comprised of academic staff who are not tenured.

The idea that academic professionals were not given the same voting power as faculty electorates confused some members in the senate.

Jennifer Follis, a lecturer in journalism, said academic professionals often do the same amount of work as tenured faculty members. She added that she has kept the title of "academic other" for 23 years.

"We were brought in to help do the work of the faculty," Follis said. "I was elected as a representative of my department."

Follis said she was happy to see academic professionals receive more attention but said the amendment would place all academic professionals in a general pool of academic others, causing departments to lose their independent representation.

The senate found inconsistencies across academic units on whether non-tenured faculty members have representation in the senate. Depending on the department, some academic professionals were eligible to be elected as members of the senate, while faculty in other academic departments kept academic professionals from voting in the senate.

Bill Maher, chair of the University Statutes and Senate Procedures committee, said the senate's constitution prohibits lecturers from serving in the senate without applying under the article about faculty representation, Article II Section C.

"Instructors are currently entitled to be in the senate," said George Friedman, University Statutes and Senate Procedures committee member. "Lecturers are not. They'd have to apply by category C."

Vera Mainz, member of the University Statutes and Senate Procedures Committee, said she works in the School of Chemical Sciences and lectures over a thousand students. She said since her main job is not primarily instructing, her role in the senate is limited.

"In the senate, I only have a right to speak on committee business," Mainz said. "Academic professionals have no visibility in the senate."

Mainz said that if the proposal passes, a select few senators would account for the 2,000-plus academic professionals on campus.

The U-C Senate will conduct a second reading of the amendment on November 9.