The forum can act as a sounding board and information resource, and hopefully will encourage more faculty to participate in university governance. The idea is not new. Right now, the discussion is centered around the proposed post-tenure review policy that faculty are voting on, but Schilling said he hopes to receive comments about other issues too, such as declining academic standards, student course evaluation and distance education.
Schilling is surprised at the number of faculty who subscribed to the list initially.
Schilling hopes, eventually, the Faculty Senate, the Center for Teaching Excellence or another like group will sponsor the forum. Comments sent to the online forum are e-mailed to everyone on the list. Though there is no archive of the comments at present, Schilling hopes one can be developed in the future.