The Urbana-Champaign Senate approved a statement for submission to the University Senates Conference regarding its recommendations on the proposed administrative restructuring.

The three-page statement rejects the proposals in their current form due to lack of sufficient information, said Joyce Tolliver, chair of the senates executive committee. These proposals would create a new vice president of Health Affairs and changes to several titles of other administrators.

“In general, the reason that the senate cannot support the proposals at this time is (there is) not enough information across the board, too many unanswered questions,” Tolliver said.

One aspect that is specifically lacking details is funding for the positions, she said.

“There are other sorts of details about how our campus life would change if the proposals were to be put into effect,” she said. “The sense of the senate is that there are still gaps, significant gaps in the information.”

The senate also voted to include a 13-page document created by the executive committee as an appendix to the official statement. Both documents can be found on the senates’ website: senate.illinois.edu.

The majority of Monday’s discussion revolved around the format of what will be submitted as the senate’s official statement.

Mark Steinberg, professor of history, advocated for the inclusion of the longer document.

“Why would you keep secret a document that is essentially referred to?” Steinberg said.

David Olsen, student body president and member of the U-C Senate’s executive committee, said he believes the senate put forward a good statement.

“It both expresses the major points, the major concerns, but it also elaborates that we are not intending to stand in opposition to what the board wants to do,” Olsen said. “We merely need more clarification and more information about their changes before we can fully consider them.”

Olsen added that there is need for further discussion of the senate and the campus as a whole as the University moves forward in evaluating these changes.

“Quite frankly, I think many senators want change,” he said. “But we’re just not comfortable with the change in the current format.”

Upon request by John Kindt, professor in Business, Tolliver updated those present on the proceedings of the other campus senates on the issue to the best of her knowledge.

The U-C Senate and executive committee held eight meetings in a little over a month dedicated to this issue.

Tolliver said they did everything in their power to submit its evaluation to the University Senates Conference by the Nov. 9 deadline.

“Through these extraordinary efforts, we do have a report that responds pretty comprehensively to the proposals,” Tolliver said. “We didn’t think a full review would be possible in the time that we were given.”

She said both the Springfield and Chicago senate have not forwarded their advice yet, but the Chicago senate asked the Board of Trustees to postpone consideration of the proposals until March.

The next steps in the process are in the hands of the University Senates Conference, comprised of elected members from all three campus senates. The senates conference will try to consolidate the three campus senates’ recommendations. If it cannot, it will forward all three to the board along with its own suggestions.

The University Senates Conference will hold a video conference Thursday morning to discuss the administrative restructuring. U-C Senate members will meet in the Henry Administration Building for the meeting.