ACADEMIC COMMITTEE MINUTES                                                                    DATE 01/31/19

MEETING START TIME: 5:05PM

ATTENDANCE:

Committee: Chair Morabito, Vice Chair Nelson, Senator McGrath, Senator Menard

Absent: Senator D’Aguanno(excused)

Non-Committee: DOC St. Amand

DISCUSSION:

TOPIC 1: Provost DeHayes

• We are trying to get Provost DeHayes to come to academic affairs committee and to speak on the general senate floor as well
• Communication between him and his assistants has been difficult

TOPIC 2: One on Ones

• VP Howard has delegated one on ones to happen within each committee with the committee chair
• Chair Morabito will be sending out emails soon to schedule one on ones with each committee member

TOPIC 3: Indigenous People’s Day

• Academic Affairs Committee and Cultural Affairs Committee has been working together trying to get the Academic Calendar to change Columbus Day to Indigenous People’s Day for a few years now to respect the indigenous people who were harmed by Columbus’s arrival in America
• We are planning on sending out a poll to the students of URI to get data on the student’s perspective on this topic to show that students want this change to be made

TOPIC 4: Constitution

• We discussed the new constitution bill for the last section of the meeting to get an idea of the timeline, how the by-laws committee will be formed, who will serve in the by-laws committee, and why certain changes were made to the constitution following the constitutional convention
• We came up with some possible strategies and compromises to get this passed in a timely manner but also address all of the concerns with full attention

Extra:

MEETING ADJOURNMENT TIME: 6:12PM