Student Government Association continues seeking syllabus index

Student Senate is making changes to the syllabus index after concerns were presented at the last Faculty Senate meeting.

The syllabus index would allow students to view the syllabi for courses they hope to take in the upcoming semester.

"Students need to go into class with a full understanding of what's going on in that class," Matthew White, executive vice president of the Student Government Association, said. "This university has a problem with students going into classes and dropping."

Madelyn Street, SGA academic affairs committee chair, and Nichole Arbino, student senator, presented the updated database to Faculty Senate in December. But Faculty Senate had a few concerns regarding its availability and requested the index be password protected.

Arbino, who is in charge of the design of the database, said, "Faculty Senate would like to see it put on EKU Direct so random people from other schools can't get on there."

The set-up of the database would allow students to first choose the course prefix and number, which would take you to the syllabus for that section.

"We contacted the people in charge of EKU Direct and they've been difficult to work with," Street said. "We're working with IT to make it like email."

Jennifer Spock, professor of history and member of Faculty Senate, said she would be more supportive of the proposition if it were made available through EKU Direct, where students would have to sign-in to view the syllabi.

"Students considering coming to EKU might see a handful of syllabi and think they're too hard and go somewhere else," Spock said.

Lynnette Noblitt, chair of the department of government and senate chair on Faculty Senate, said her main concern is the ability of faculty to keep the index up to date.

"Right now, we're going to do it [posting syllabi] ourselves," Street said. "Right now, we're working it out to be integrated so a grad student can have it be part of their workload."

Faculty Senate also requested a disclaimer for the page to remind students every syllabus would be subject to change the following semester.

Because the syllabus index would only be updated every fall semester, Noblitt said she wants students to know it would not be consistent every semester and doesn't want them to become too dependent on the system.

Some members of Faculty Senate argued that including items, such as grading scales, would jeopardize the academic integrity of classes.

"The majority of the faculty just think it will allow students to class shop more than they already do," Street said. "Some students like homework, some like more tests."

Street said she does not understand the issue behind students being allowed to "class shop." Something she said the students do anyway through websites such as ratemyprofessor.com and word of mouth.

White is currently working on a presentation that he plans on presenting to the Council on Academic Affairs some time next month. Before the syllabus index happens, both the CAA and Faculty Senate must approve it.

"For the most part, we're just trying to please Faculty Senate as much as possible so they can see that we're trying to work with them, and it will be really helpful to the students and class retention rates," Street said.

SGA is planning to present their revisions for the index for a vote at the next Faculty Senate meeting Feb. 6.