With one subcommittee on computer privacy already in existence, on Tuesday the Faculty Senate will look toward developing others to focus on issues surrounding academic freedom.

The senate organized a faculty forum last month and discussed such issues as freedom in research and options in shared governance.

The senate will pool results of the forum Tuesday to see what recommendations can be made in the future, along with what committees can be formed to discuss them, said chair Anne Zahlan.

The subcommittee on computer privacy was formed last semester after the issue of privacy was brought to the senate by English professor John Kilgore.

The policy draft includes provisions ensuring the university recognize a faculty or staff’s inherent right to the operation of computers provided to them and information stored on them.

“All you can do with a privacy policy is agree on a principle,” Kilgore said at the faculty forum.

The Faculty Senate will also hear a proposal to amend its constitution’s wording.

The senate helps select membership for university committees filled by elected members, such as the Council on Teacher Education, but the senate’s constitution is in conflict with other committee’s bylaws.

With the exception of the Council on Academic Affairs, the committees or councils are in the practice of specifying membership selection from university colleges, while the senate constitution says members are elected at large, Zahlan said.

The proposed change Tuesday will bring the senate wording into “agreement with current practice,” said Doug Brandt, chair of the senate elections committee.

If the senate accepts the proposed revision, the faculty must pass it by a two-thirds vote following a two-week period. Voting will likely be by mail ballots or through polling stations Feb. 27, Brandt said.

Senate bylaw changes do not need a faculty vote, but the two-week period for constitutional amendments allows the proposal to be distributed among faculty.

The senate’s proposed revision was brought to the attention of the elections committee because the CAA is in the process of revising its bylaws to select two members from each college and one at-large, Zahlan said.

The senate also will hear a report on the state of intercollegiate athletics at Eastern from Gail Richard, chair of the intercollegiate athletics board.

Richard is also the NCAA athletics faculty representative.

Richard said she will offer the senate a “thumbnail sketch of student athletics,” and touch on issues such as diversity and graduate rates.

The senate also will hear discussion on appropriated and external funds in the athletics department, something that could be a primary concern for senate members, Richard said.

Appropriated funds originate mostly from tax revenues and tuition spent within a fiscal year.

“The appropriated dollars are pretty minimal compared to the overall budget,” she said.

The Faulty Senate will meet at 2 p.m. Tuesday in Booth Library Conference Room 4440.