By Annemarie Urbanato ’81

The University Senate decided against recommending the continuation of football to the Board of Trustees last Friday.

By a 13 to 15 decision, the Senate voted that the motion should be sent back to the Athletic Advisory and Student Life committees they believed that such a debate would not be serious or reasonable.

After the motion was announced, Father O’Malley, dean of arts and science, made another motion to remand it back to the committees.

O’Malley’s motion came at 6:20 p.m. Senate procedures states that new business cannot be introduced after 6:45 p.m.

“I think that the sole purpose of the administration and some faculty members of the Senate was to send it back to a committee in hopes that it would die in that committee,” commented Student Government President Bob Rosengarth.

“The contention was that there wasn’t enough information, but I feel that we were well prepared for any debate on the subject,” he continued. “If anyone tried to get all of the information on an issue before bringing it to the Senate floor, it would never get there because there’s always more information. Furthermore, the chair stated that there could be no debate on the motion to remand. However, a motion to remand is debatable, according to parliamentary procedures,” he explained.

The Senate devoted most of the meeting, however, debating the issues of student course/teacher evaluations. By a two vote margin, they decided in favor of continuing the practice.

The Ad Hoc Committee on Course/Teacher Evaluation, however, recommended that results be kept from the library. The committee claimed that they have “proven to be little or no utility” in aiding students for course selection.

Student senators strongly opposed the committee’s recommendations. The availability, they said, would supplement the “grapevine approach” to learning about courses and teachers and would also serve as favorable public relations for the University.

The main reason why students hardly utilized them in the past was because the questions that went along with the results were not available, said Rosengarth.

Most faculty and administration senators voted in favor of the recommendation. They agreed during the meeting that it denied a teacher’s right to explain the results and that most interpretation could be taken out of context.

The Senate also defeated another recommendation to make the evaluations mandatory criteria for tenure and promotion consideration.

They agreed, however, to pass a recommendation by the rules and review committee to allow for a formal question and answer period before each meeting.

If the recommendation is passed by Father Driscoll and the Board of Trustees, administrators would be required to answer questions concerning university policy either in person or in writing. Five questions will be sent at least five days before each meeting to a specific administrator. The questions will not be debatable.