The University of Nebraska-Lincoln Faculty Senate continued its discussion of academic freedom and heard about an upcoming Blackboard upgrade in its meeting Tuesday.
The senate heard a report at its last meeting about the cancellation of William Ayers’ speech at UNL and how that event infringed upon academic freedom. In Tuesday’s meeting, the senate received recommendations from the committee that investigated the cancellation.
John Fech, Southeast Research and Extension Center educator and senate president, said, while the senate was looking at recommendations, the point is to find a solution.
“What we want to do is attach action to these recommendations,” Fech said. “Without action, these are just words on a paper.”
Of all of the recommendations, the senate focused on one in particular: educating people on the importance of academic freedom. Fech said education is the most important part of the process.
“We need education for those folks who don’t appreciate or understand academic freedom,” Fech said.
Tom Franti, an associate professor of biological systems engineering, said perhaps the E.N. Thompson Forum could tackle the subject.
“Every year there’s a theme,” Franti said. “This could be another theme for another year.”
Pat Shea, a professor of natural resources, said he wasn’t sure the need for more academic freedom education was necessarily a central issue among faculty.
“I’m not sure how the university views academic freedom,” Shea said. “I’m not convinced the majority of the faculty see this as a concern.”
Lack of concern for academic freedom shows a need for better understanding of it, said Wes Peterson, a professor of agricultural economics.
“That seems to be even more of a reason to educate people about academic freedom,” Peterson said.
The senate will vote on a motion to pass the recommendations at its next meeting.
UNL Chancellor Harvey Perlman spoke to the senate about the state’s decreasing budget. While UNL is by no means in as bad a situation as some other universities or state agencies, Perlman said the outlook is still grim.
“There’s no other way to color this than as a very significant reduction in our resources,” Perlman said.
Perlman encouraged the senate to keep coming up with ideas to help reduce costs.
“I don’t think all of the wisdom is in the administration, so please keep your ideas coming,” Perlman said.
Heath Tuttle from UNL Information Services gave a presentation about the upcoming changes to Blackboard. Tuttle said the upgrade is simply to make using Blackboard easier.
“Most of these changes are in functionality,” Tuttle said. “A lot of things have really improved, which will make things a lot easier and faster.”
Tuttle said the upgrade will happen sometime during winter break, once grades are reported.
macbarber@dailynebraskan.com
