Tuesday, April 22, 2003
How to cook a quorum
Odd email this morning from the faculty association (union) president. (It so happens he's featured in today's local paper on the benefits of walking to work. Earth Day, don'cha know!) He asks for those who are not coming to Faculty Senate meetings to resign from the senate, so as to reduce the number of faculty needed to create a quorum "to get important business done" such as "the curriculum", grade appeals, workplace violence, etc.
If it is important business -- and what could be more important than a university's curriculum? -- do we really want a rump faculty senate pushing through things in a hurried fashion? It seems to me the current leadership is in a hurry to get things done to add to its list of accomplishments. And of course we'll all look in the fall and say, "When did we decide that?"
Act in haste, repent on the faculty discussion list.
UPDATE: It turns out the case of UCLA's faculty senate passing an antiwar resolution was also the result of quorum games.
