The changes to the Electronic Writing Portfolio have some departments concerned.

But Faculty Senate Chair Lynne Curry does not know if Faculty Senate can do anything about it.

“It’s really (the Council on Academic Affairs’) jurisdiction to pass this, and they did,” Curry said. “People still continue to voice their concern to the Faculty Senate.”

She added that the senate would look into what it can do, depending on if senate members want to examine the issue further.

“My concern is people know that we are listening to their concerns,” Curry said.

She said the English department has sent a few letters to the senate to address the issue of helping to improve a student’s writing for the EWP.

Curry said she has sent the letters to other senators, but has not received their feedback on it because CAA recently approved the changes.

“This will be our first meeting since the EWP changes were passed by CAA,” Curry said.

She said she is unsure if the senate will address the letters, but the letters will be made available to the members for the 2 p.m. meeting today in Booth Library Conference Room 4440.

“All I am going to do is ask,” Curry said. “I’m going to put it before the senators and ask them to think about it because it hasn’t been on our radar screen.”

CAA approved changes to the EWP on Nov. 1.

Students whose first two submissions receive a “needs improvement” or “unsatisfactory” will need to take a diagnostic writing exam – one of the revisions made to the EWP.

Students who do not pass with a minimal score will be required to take a one-semester, non-credit course.

The English department’s letters address concerns about whether the remediation to a student’s work was properly implemented with the changes to the EWP or not addressed at all, Curry said.

She said the original purpose of the EWP was to give data to outside agencies like the Illinois Board of Higher Education to help assess student’s writing.

“Not only do we want to assess student’s writing, but we want to do something to improve it,” Curry said. “I think that is where our bigger concerns lie.”

Improvement is the area where more discussion needs to take place, she said, because people are uncertain about how to implement the remediation aspect of the EWP.

“I don’t know if it is the first step or the last step,” Curry said. “We have to have a chance to think about this.”

In other business for the meeting, Gary Reed, director for facilities planning and management, will give his annual report about projects around campus.

“We’ll learn a lot about the latest (projects on) buildings, parking – all those kinds of things,” Curry said.