During its regular meeting on Monday, March 4th, 2024 the University Senate approved a series of three motions presented by the Senate Faculty Standards Committee:

1. In official university documentation, remove the “SET+” terminology, which implicitly foregrounds and prioritizes the SET as a primary and definitive assessment of teaching effectiveness. “Assessment of Teaching Effectiveness” (ATE) is the desired general descriptive language to be used moving forward. (63 YAY, 0 NAY, 3 ABSTAIN)
2. Redefine the SET acronym from “Student Evaluation of Teaching” to “Student Experience of Teaching,” which reflects the subjective nature of the instrument and acknowledges the potential inherent biases present therein. (66 YAY, 2 NAY, 1 ABSTAN)
3. That the Senate endorse these recommendations and implementation strategies, as well as provide additional venues to their broad distribution, including appropriate websites and the Senate FSC/Provost Office PTR Information Sessions in the spring of each academic year. (62 YAY, 2 NAY, 4 ABSTAIN)

The full SET Taskforce recommendations referenced in these motions can be found in the Academic Affairs Governance Documents Library and the full language of the motion presented by the Faculty Standards Committee to the Senate can be found here.

During its regular meeting on Monday, February 5, 2024, the University Senate approved a resolution presented by the Senate Executive Committee to charge the Provost’s Office with convening a university-wide taskforce to address issues related to learning accommodations delivery from a faculty-facing perspective.

As described in the resolution, “The purpose of the Taskforce is to analyze CSD and faculty data with respect to the nature and frequency of accommodations, obtain input from faculty and students on challenges and effective strategies around accommodations, and evaluate faculty training and support in adopting Universal Design for Learning and inclusive teaching approaches that might reduce the need for accommodations.”

An update on the work of this taskforce should be shared with the University Senate Executive Committee by the end of the Spring 2024 semester, and the final report should be presented to the University Senate in the Fall of 2024, along with any other units relevant to the report.

The motion passed YES 62, NO 2, ABSTAIN 1. The full resolution is available here.