The Faculty Senate passed a recommendation to create an office of faculty development and a steering committee to advise the office Tuesday at its meeting.

The recommendation further suggests designating an area on campus for “intellectual and social interaction among faculty members from all campuses.”

The office, created within the office of academic affairs, would provide faculty development opportunities in teaching, research and service and coordinate faculty development activities.

The recommendation calls for an operating budget and active pursuit of external sources of funding through grants, the EIU Foundation and the External Relations Office.

To run the office, the senate suggested that the vice president for academic affairs appoint an interim Faculty Development Coordinator to coordinate programming maintain a Web site and get funding.

The steering committee, called the Council on Faculty Development, would review and evaluate in-house proposals for grants and awards. The committee would be comprised of two faculty representatives each from the College of Sciences, the College of Arts and Humanities, the College of Education and Professional Studies and the Lumpkin College of Business and Applied Sciences and one representative of the library faculty to be selected by the Faculty Senate. The Council of Deans, the Council of Chairs and the vice president for academic affairs would each appoint a representative.

The senate has been debating how to address the concerns raised at the Spring 2002 Faculty Forum since the forum was held late January. Some members had concerns about creating more bureaucracy or trying to find funding that wasn’t available. Everyone attending the meeting voted for its passage.

Faculty elections are set for March 26 and 27, and the final list of nominated faculty has been created. Write in spaces will be drawn on ballots for the Council on Teacher Education where College of Education and Professional Studies failed to nominate a candidate and in the Academic Program Elimination Review committee where the College of Sciences did not make a nomination.