Members say Council fails to address issues

Provost Stanley Chodorow says University Council is an underused resource. And judging from the number of empty seats at the last three Council meetings, Chodorow may have a point. Council -- the only University forum combining representatives of the administration, faculty, staff and students -- is facing a range of problems, according to many members. Following a January 22 meeting where several Council committees presented progress reports, Chodorow remarked that the committee system is not working as well as it should. "A lot of Council committees overlap or are at cross-purposes with some University committees," Chodorow said. "The problem is that these committees just don't work hard enough or in a timely enough fashion." University President Judith Rodin agreed that some committees seem to lack guidance, but added that is a routine problem for large organizations. "Some committees are outstanding and others sometimes seem to struggle with how to be helpful -- although they all are enormously eager to be helpful," she said. "It is just a matter of the nature of organizations." But Fran Walker, director of student life activities and facilities, said the committees should receive more direction from the president and provost. And Faculty Senate Chairperson Peter Kuriloff said delays occur everywhere in the process -- and not just in committees. "When a committee makes a recommendation to the administration, first of all it goes to the provost or the president and gets piled into a huge pile of stuff, and then it goes to council -- [recommendations] get stuck at the Council's office a lot," he said. Council Moderator and Statistics Professor David Hildebrand said meetings often lack substance, noting that "it has not seemed as though [Council] is of epic importance." He added that while Council often manages to cover the "he said, she said" of University issues, it rarely combines ideas into one coherent proposal. But Hildebrand maintained that Council is still a useful tool. "A lot of what Council is good for is when it acts as kind of antenna to pick up signals of potential problems, and that it still does well," he said. Undergraduate Assembly Chairperson Tal Golomb agreed, adding that Council has been particularly valuable in the past year because it has allowed students to air concerns over safety and the judicial charter. Hildebrand explained that Council always faces problems, although they change over the years. "Five years ago Council was a lot more contentious. It made for a good spectator sport but I'm not sure we got anything done," he said. "We used to have a hell of a time getting the minutes approved. There are less problems now in terms of how Council operates." But attendance remains a problem, as Council consistently fails to meet the quorum necessary to make its votes binding. Walker said that even attendance problems "run in cycles." "I mean the students are there -- at least the undergraduates are, but there was a time when they weren't and the grad students and faculty were the ones who attended," she added. But Hildebrand claimed that faculty have traditionally been the worst group in terms of attendance. He attributed this to their feelings that they can accomplish more by airing their views in the Faculty Senate. Kuriloff blamed poor attendance on the lack of discussion at meetings. "One reason why people don't go to these is that you get read at or talked to," he said. "The only reasons to have those meetings is to have discussions." But Golomb said Council often gets its opinions across, even without reaching quorum at meetings. "Sometimes [attendance] does not make a difference because Council makes its opinion known and it is basically followed," Golomb said. "It is a deliberative body and not a decision-making body." Rodin said some members of the University community consider low Council attendance to be a sign that everything is OK. "But if we believe this is a vehicle for hearing issues we need more participation even at good times," she added.

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