Letter urges creation of UA child-care center

Faculty Senate members yesterday unanimously backed a letter of support for the release of a Request for Proposals for a child-care facility.

A request for proposals, or RFP, is a method to bring outside companies into the UA. This RFP would allow companies to bid for the right to provide services to a child-care center serving UA students.

While there has never been a request for an RFP for child-care facilities, RFPs are frequently used for other needs, said Tommy Bruce, president of the Associated Students of the University of Arizona.

Currently, 20 percent of graduate students and 10 percent of undergraduate students have a need for child care, Bruce said.

The UA is also the only Pacific 10 Conference school without a child-care facility, he added.

“”To be able to offer drop-in hours or reduced rates for students and having it conveniently located right on campus, it’s truly ideal for a student that’s on the go,”” Bruce said.

The letter was addressed to Provost Eugene Sander and written by Catherine Neish, president of the Graduate and Professional Student Council, Robert Mitchell, vice chair of the Faculty Senate, and Bruce.

Sander must now decide whether to agree or disagree with releasing the RFP, Bruce said.

Changes made to grade-appeal policies

The Senate unanimously approved a change to the Grade Appeal Policy that will take effect this spring for all undergraduate and graduate students.

The changes were proposed to clarify the appropriate reasons for appealing a grade, whether a committee needs to be convened to review the case, and to clarify the options a dean has in changing the grade for a student, according to the text of the new policy.

The changes state the following:

? Undergraduate students may file grade appeals based only on fundamental fairness, or lack thereof, in instructor treatment and how other students in the same course and section were graded.

? Valid reasons for a dean to convene a committee for case review now include violations of university policies, lack of consistency within a student’s course section, not following course policies published in the course syllabus, or a dispute over the factual accuracy of graded work.

Invalid reasons now include disagreements in course policy, differences between sections of a course, the grade’s impact on the student’s academic progress, and athletic or veteran’s status.

? A dean also has the authority to change a grade to a different credit-bearing grade – for example, from a standard letter to a “”pass”” or a “”fail.””

Statistics certificate gets OK

The Faculty Senate unanimously approved a Graduate Certificate in Statistics, and the certification program will be offered beginning this spring.

The certification is through the Graduate Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program in Statistics. Certification will indicate the student has a firm foundation in statistics and allow students to design a statistics curriculum that serves their needs, according to the Senate agenda.

The certificate may be offered to not only UA students but also professionals and other community members, according to the agenda.

-Claire Conrad