Faculty Debate Over ABC and Freshman Seminars
By Haley Castro '11, Editor-in-Chief
Last night the faculty convened in Cole Assembly Room for their third meeting of the semester. The elections for newly formed Amherst Budgetary Committee (ABC) and Freshmen Seminars were at the top of the agenda.

The last wave of voting for the ABC was stalled due to a complaint against one faculty member concerning “campaigning, caucusing or slating” for specific faculty members up for election to the ABC. One faculty member motioned to repeat the most recent voting and to officially adopt the policy that “campaigning, caucusing or slating” during the ABC elections is “inappropriate”.

The motion was followed by debate with faculty members supporting the motion as well as many believed that the debated actions did not constitute a violation of election rules. The vote was conducted by secret ballot, passing 51-50.

Freshmen Seminars were up next for discussion. After much discussion the faculty voted to approve a motion that stipulated that seminars include “discussion-based classes, writing-attentive instruction with frequent and varied assignments, close reading and critical interpretation of written texts and careful attention to the development and analysis of argument in speech and writing.” The specific changes will take affect for the Class of 2014.

Issue 22, Submitted 2009-04-08 01:33:53