At its most recent meeting, the University of Delaware Faculty Senate covered three big C’s: consideration, course offerings and a UD council doing pivotal work to safeguard the future of upcoming Blue Hens.

Provost Robin Morgan kicked off the discussion, held via Zoom on Monday, April 4, by urging consideration for UD’s Muslim community. She reminded faculty that we have entered Ramadan, the holiest month in the Islamic calendar, and practicing students will be fasting from sunrise to sundown. These Blue Hens may need to leave evening classes in order to eat or pray, so “we need to be understanding of that,” she said.

Morgan also reminded faculty about UD’s “critically important” Decision Days, open houses for admitted students in April, with the next scheduled on April 23.

Comprising the meat of the meeting, the Senate passed 159 resolutions, many related to the establishment of new undergraduate and graduate programs. Among these offerings, which will go before the Board of Trustees for approval in May, are a bachelor’s degree in intensive French studies, a bachelor’s degree in cybersecurity engineering and a master’s degree in insect and wildlife environmental education.

The only resolution that generated debate was a request for the permanent removal of a rule in the course catalog restricting the number of online courses a student can take per semester to two. (It is a limit that has already been suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic.)

Some senators advocated for an amended resolution that would only suspend the limit temporarily, for the 2022-2023 academic year. This, they argued, would allow relevant committees the opportunity to survey the budgetary impacts of various course modalities (in-person, online, hybrid) before making recommendations for how courses should be taught in the future. But others deemed such a review period unnecessary.

“When I look at our comparator institutions… they don’t have any restrictions like this on the number of online courses their students can take,” said Senator John Pelesko, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and a professor of mathematical sciences. “One of the things that we’ve heard from students repeatedly through the pandemic is that they’ve appreciated the flexibility of online courses. And we’d like to see that continue, at least to a certain degree.”

Ultimately, the Senate voted in favor of the original resolution, 26-23. The body also voted to publish its own responsibilities regarding academic and education policies on the Faculty Senate website.

Pivoting to the third Big C of the agenda, Senate President Chris Williams presented an update on the efforts of the “fantastically dedicated” folks comprising the UD Sustainability Council, which he co-chairs.

“It is critically important that universities, especially those of us that are land-grant institutions, have a responsibility to lead by example,” he said, adding that sustainability is an environmental, economic and social justice issue. In other words: “It’s more than changing light bulbs.”

Williams noted that sustainable development is a key to the University’s recently approved strategic plan, a bold vision for the future of the institution, and he outlined several action items necessary for success, including reducing UD’s carbon footprint and leveraging sustainability expertise at UD to attract high-quality undergraduate and graduate students.

For more on how the council is planning to move the University forward and become a leader in this space among peer institutions, he directed faculty to read the University of Delaware’s new Sustainability Plan.

For new business, Senator John Morgan, associate professor of physics and astronomy, put forward a resolution expressing the Senate’s endorsement of the state legislature’s concurrent resolution (HCR 53) condemning Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and conveying support for the Ukrainian people.