Faculty members decided to take voting privileges away from students on faculty committees in a meeting held April 12.
“The faculty committees’ task is to carry out faculty duties, which is laid out in the school’s bylaws,” Scott Smith, chair of the Faculty Executive Council and associate professor of history, said. “Voting members should be faculty.”
In the past, few decisions required actual voting, Smith said.
“Essentially, nothing will change for students on committees,” Smith said. “Because we rarely ever have to vote, students’ impact on committees depends on how persuasive they are. It has nothing to do with voting.”
The change was a surprise to some Associated Students of Linfield College members, junior Club Director and President-elect Colin Jones said.
“There are a lot of concerns about taking voting away,” Jones said. “It takes away from the shared governance of the college and also experiential learning of students.”
Changes to faculty committees were discussed at the ASLC Senate meeting April 19.
“I think it’s disrespectful to students, and that was echoed by students at Senate this week,” Jones said. “They want students to sit at the table but don’t want them to have a vote.”
Faculty also decided to reduce the number of committees from 12 to four. Students will have two representatives on two of these committees — the curriculum and student policies committees.
Students on the faculty committees are appointed by the ASLC president. In the past, almost all faculty committees had two student representatives. The committees were downsized in an effort to boost efficiency and effectiveness, Smith said.
“Having that many committees was burdensome, so it wasn’t a controversial change,” Jones said. “Many of the school’s committees are considering being reduced — even Senate is looking to cut down.”
The changes were initially proposed at a March faculty meeting. Students did not vote on the proposed changes, Jones said.
“These changes don’t mean that faculty doesn’t value student input and perspectives,” Smith said. “Students who are active and engaged will continue to be influential.”
The new faculty committees will meet in May.

Shawn Fisher
News reporter Shawn Fisher can be reached at [email protected]