The most debated topic at Wednesday’s University Senate meeting sprouted from an item that wasn’t even on the agenda.

Pat Cihon, an associate professor of law and public policy at Syracuse University, asked for clarification of the purpose and implications of SU Europe during the new business part of the session in Maxwell Auditorium.

Donald Saleh, SU’s vice president for enrollment management, said SU Europe is the first step in a long-term effort to create regional abroad centers. Essentially, administrative operations like accounting and payroll at the four abroad centers in Europe will be consolidated into one office in London. Those centers include London; Florence, Italy; Madrid, Spain; and Strasbourg, France.

‘Our goal is to use this as an opportunity to reduce overhead costs and make the programs more efficient and therefore more affordable,’ Saleh said.

The addition of SU Europe will also help allow SU to explore potential abroad sites in Europe, Saleh said, though expansion won’t be in the western part of the continent.

Cihon, who’s involved with the SU Abroad Madrid committee, said he has taught in London, Madrid and Florence, and wanted to know how SU Europe will affect those operations.

‘When you’re trying to run programs in Madrid or Strasbourg or Florence,’ he said, ‘if you have to clear everything through somebody in London, what’s the effect going to be?’

After the meeting, Chancellor Nancy Cantor said SU has seen an increase in demand from students wanting to study in a greater variety of places, like Istanbul, Turkey.

‘We’re doing a consolidation of what we call the ‘backroom services’ through London, in order to be able to take that kind of money out of the system, so that we can allow students to go more places,’ Cantor said.

The university isn’t planning to open new centers in the cities like Istanbul, Cantor said, but will provide opportunities for students to study at local universities there, much like SU’s Santiago, Chile program already functions.

But Horace Campbell, a professor of political science and African American studies, expressed concern that SU is deficient in its diversity of locations outside Europe. ‘The world is bigger than Europe,’ he said.

Campbell said he thinks the university should do more to educate students on other abroad options. Parents, he said, are very afraid of uncommon abroad locations.

‘I am a member of the faculty here who believe the university should reflect the understanding of the growing complexity of international relations and international politics, with the rise of new centers like Brazil, Russia, India and China,’ he said.

Another point of conversation at the session was a report given by Larry Lewandowski, chair of USen’s Committee on Instruction. The report, which displayed the committee’s activities last year, was filed in April, so there weren’t any new action items on it, Lewandowski said.

The report studied the need for a university-wide policy on showing movies in class. The committee concluded that the role of films vary so much from course to course that it didn’t make sense to establish a blanket policy for SU.

Other business included:

– Agenda Committee Chair Eileen Schell announced that after last month’s controversial senate meeting about removing books from Bird Library, the Library Committee plans to give another report in the spring.

– The Subcommittee on Sexual Harassment and Abuse of Power posted a draft of its updated policy on the senate’s Web site, and is requesting feedback this month so it can finalize the document.

– The senate unanimously approved new courses and changes to existing courses.

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Published on December 3, 2009 at 12:00 pm