By: Armone’ Gates, Copy Editor

The Faculty Senate discussed a controversial change to syllabus policy, along with other issues, at its first meeting of the year on Aug. 21. 

Every third Thursday of each month, the senate meets in the University Center’s Magnolia Room to discuss the plans and protocols for the upcoming semester. 

The e-board members consist of President Susan Boddie, Vice President Hoa Nguyen, and Parliamentarian Christen Dillon. 

Currently, there is no secretary, but a special election will be held next month for the e-board secretary position. 

The meeting consisted of the Faculty Senate board chairmen and the senators who represent the different departments here on our campus. 

Many newly elected senators joined the meeting and were acknowledged by Boddie in a welcoming introduction. 

Dr. Sheri Noviello, Interim Provost, gave a brief explanation of the overall status of VSU’s enrollment numbers as of now.  

“As of Monday, our overall enrollment is up by 2.3% compared to the point in time for fall of 2024, ” said Noviello. 

There are about 5,554 traditional undergrad students currently, and last fall, the graduate program reached the highest enrollment in the history of VSU, with a total of over 3,000 students. 

Also, currently there are 3,339 graduate students this semester, so overall the university has over 300 more students this year than last fall. 

The meeting took an interesting turn when the issue of “Public Syllabi” annoyed many faculty members. 

Noviello thanked many professors who had requested Public Syllabi posted for core impacts and teacher education courses launched from the system office. 

However, last week the university received additional guidance from the system office, which stated, “What you post to students is what should be publicly posted, ” said Noviello. 

Therefore, the university had to pivot to whatever the public syllabi stated that was posted through many professors’ courses, which the university picked. 

This consisted of documents that pertain to the schedule and content outline for students. 

The board will be having conversations in the fall semester to guide everyone on the policy for the spring semester.   

There is now an understanding that the syllabi that are publicly posted need to be the syllabi that goes to the students. 

Many faculty members have been complaining about keeping up with two different syllabi.  

The deadline for the spring 26 core impact and teacher education course syllabi is Jan 6. Starting fall of 2026, all syllabi will have to be posted before registration goes live. 

This means that March 24, 2026, is the deadline to post syllabi for the 2026 fall semester. 

The guidance on how the spring semester operates will also apply to how summer and fall semesters will operate.  

Also, during the meeting, Dr. Noviello said, “Dr. Michael Black will be sending out his routine email message asking professors who don’t have publicly required syllabi at this time to post their regular syllabus.” 

This information will go out to the faculty members who are teaching non-core impact and non-teacher ed sections for the fall semester.  

Dr. Noviello said this information will be coming out in a couple of days.  

The Strategic Enrollment Plan is being finalized and is set to be completed by the end of August so that it can be posted for all faculty and staff. Many professors were annoyed about the further changes that are now protocols for the syllabi. 

“I understand that I must have a syllabus ready by March for August,” one Professor said during the meeting. I’m lucky if I have an August syllabus ready by March.”  

The bottom line, Noviello said, is that  professors don’t have a version of their syllabus for the students that differs from the public. 

Noviello and the e-board will be giving guidance moving forward on how the university will operate with the syllabus issue. 

“It almost feels like we’re dangerously being told what to put in our syllabi,” said a senate member.