The Faculty Senate will motion to accept the Statement of Principle for the Cell Phone Use in Classrooms proposal from Blair Lord, provost and vice president for academic affairs, at its meeting at 2 p.m. today in Booth Library, Room 4440.

Lord has outlined the following principle for faculty to follow in his memo to Faculty Senate Chair John Pommier: “Each faculty member has the authority and responsibility to establish the conditions for student cell phone use in his/her classroom, and these shall be specified in the course syllabus. Such conditions are at the discretion of the faculty member, but shall provide that a university-initiated campus security text message can be received and disseminated to the classroom in a timely manner.”

Faculty members can administer their own policies on a class-by-class, personal basis.

This includes requiring cell phones to be turned on silent, vibrate or limit the number of cell phones allowed to be turned on.

However, should a faculty member have a policy, the principle states it must be outlined in the class syllabus.

Lord reached the aforementioned principle after a proposal to adopt a cell phone policy incorporated into the Student Conduct Code.

This idea was soon derailed when issues of receiving emergency text messages from the university could not be addressed by a campuswide policy.

Pommier said the senate will most likely motion to accept this principle after a “lengthy discussion” of an overall faculty policy to act as a guide for the professor’s individual policy.

Also, at 3 p.m., the senate and co-host University Professionals of Illinois will move to the east side of the University Ballroom in the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union to celebrate the retirements of 10 staff and faculty members.

Susan Kaufman, professor of journalism; Carol Stevens, professor of English; Teresa Bennett, assistant professor of early childhood, elementary, and middle level education; Charles Costa, associate professor of biological sciences; Allan Horney, professor of music; Terry Perkins, professor of communication studies; Norman Greer, associate professor of communication studies; Jerry Eisenhour, professor of theatre arts; Susan Hankenson, certification officer for the graduate school; and Mori Toosi, professor of technology, will be honored after the meeting.

“These people are hallmarks of the institution and there should be some celebration in the coming of their retirements,” Pommier said.

Food and drinks as well as a presentation of the retirees will be conducted until 4:30 p.m. Everyone is encouraged to attend.

“These individuals provide an energy and a spirit that assists the university in administering quality education,” Pommier said. “These individuals are and will always be important to the university and deserve our accolades.”

Krystal Moya can be reached at 581-7942 or at [email protected].