Students could see an earlier spring break beginning in 2017, pending approval of University administration.
A divided Senate approved Resolution 15-02, “Rationalization of the Spring Holiday” 19-to-11, which recommends spring break be scheduled in March and not dependent on the Easter holiday.
Because of the Mardi Gras holiday, spring break sometimes falls within a week of finals, which causes problems for students and professors closing lab work and cracking open textbooks for finals, said William Daly, chemistry professor and sponsor of the resolution.
“We have more holidays than any other university I looked at,” Daly said. “I would prefer a better distribution of the holidays.”
The new calendar would have breaks for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in January, Mardi Gras in February, spring break in March and Good Friday in April.
However, an established March holiday may not be as streamlined as expected.
Many senators did not support the resolution. Some voiced concerns that separating spring break from Good Friday would disenfranchise students and professors with school-aged children, make travel arrangements difficult for out-of-state students and keep the University from meeting its required minimum 42 Monday, Wednesday, Friday class periods.
Though LSU President F. King Alexander has been serving as president of the University and chancellor of the LSU System since 2013, other parts of campus are still adjusting to the realignment.
The Faculty Senate approved potential revisions to PS 36, the policy governing promotions and tenures, outlined by Vice Provost for Human Resources and facilities management Jane Cassidy.
Under the old policy, final approval for promotions and tenures rests with the LSU Board of Supervisors.
Approval moved to Alexander on January 1 under PM 69, but the University requested an extension to July 1 to make sufficient policy.
“Starting July 1, we need to have a new policy in place that does not conflict with the PM 69,” Cassidy said. “We’re asking to make just some very minor revisions right now.”
Cassidy said the revision would be the first step to a permanent change to PS 36 and would include a change to the language of “chancellor” to “president,” leaving the authority to approve promotions and tenures in the office.
The revision also would change the process by which promotions are approved. Currently, an employee’s dean will recommend them for the position, and it is common practice for employees to read those recommendations.
However, the practice is not formally in the current policy, and the revision will put permission for employees to review and respond to the recommendation of their deans in writing.
The appeals process will remain the same under the new revision, but the group responsible for the permanent change will look into clarifying its murky language, Cassidy said.
Faculty Senate President Kevin Cope said the Executive Committee reached out to the new LSU Foundation President Stephen Moret, given his recent appointment to the position.
The Daily Reveille reported Monday that Moret, Louisiana Secretary of Economic Development, will replace Lee Griffin as head of the Foundation.
“This is perhaps one of the more unusual artifacts of the privatization process that has beset higher education,” Cope said. “Indeed, it was something of a surprise that someone instrumental to the regime that made life difficult for higher education emerge as one of LSU’s leading patrons. At the same time, of course, it is our duty in faculty governance to work with the hand that is dealt.”