In an e-mail Monday, Arts and Sciences Council Chair Kathy Ewing called a special meeting of the Arts and Sciences and Engineering Faculty councils Sept. 18 at 4 p.m. to vote on a replacement for the former dean's excuse policy, which was discontinued last spring.
A policy was discussed during a joint session of the A&S Council and EFC Thursday, but a vote was delayed when it was discovered that only one member of the EFC was present. Four members of the EFC are required to reach quorum for a vote.
Some members of the A&S Council said Thursday that the vote could wait until the next scheduled meeting in October, citing the fact that students and faculty have managed until now without an official policy in place.
In the e-mail Ewing wrote to the councils, however, she stressed an "urgent need to pass a resolution" on a new policy.
"Given the disagreements that arose in the Sept. 11 meeting concerning amendments to the text of the proposed policy, it is essential that we have a quorum of both Arts and Sciences and Engineering Faculty Council faculty in attendance at the meeting," wrote Ewing, an associate professor of cultural anthropology who is just beginning her term as chair of Arts and Sciences Council.
Dean Kay Singer, a member of the committee that re-examined the dean's excuse policy, said classes cannot operate much longer without a new policy.
"Not taken into account was the fact that there will be a greater number of tests and other graded assignments in the next month than there were in the first month of classes," she said.
Despite a call from chemistry professor James Bonk--who chaired the dean's excuse policy committee--that the special session be held in Hudson Hall to accommodate EFC members, the councils will meet again in Social Sciences 139. Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences William Chafe expressed hope that both councils would make quorum after last week's non-vote put the dean's excuse policy "in limbo."
A vote on the policy is necessitated by the expiration of the old dean's excuse policy, which mandated that students get confirmation of illness from medical professionals. Director of Student Health Dr. Bill Christmas announced last fall that health care workers would no longer issue such confirmations.
Under the new policy, if passed, students would be able to deal directly with faculty members if short-term illnesses hampered their abilities to complete their course work on time. Students would use an e-mail form to inform professors of their illness and would be expected to abide by the Community Standard, which went into effect this fall.
After Bonk presented the proposed policy to at Friday's joint session, the councils debated the procedure and wording of the new policy, causing the session to run over its scheduled time slot. A number of faculty left the meeting before the policy could be put to a vote.
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