The Urbana-Champaign Senate defeated a proposal for changes to the Global Campus program amid several voiced concerns from faculty.

The progress and problems of Global Campus dominated the Senate’s discussion Monday afternoon, pushing other agenda items to future meetings.

The Global Campus proposal was to be submitted to the Board of Trustee’s at their November meeting to authorize Global Campus to seek separate accreditation from the University. This accreditation would allow Global campus to award degrees or diplomas to graduates independently from the other arms of the University of Illinois system.

University President B. Joseph White will still bring a proposal for these changes before the Board of Trustee’s in spite of disapproval from both the Urbana and Springfield campuses.

“Our mission is to maximize quality, access and affordability,” White said. “Access to a college education is absolutely crucial for people to have the futures they want.”

White added that while it is an accomplishment to have Global campus up and running, the program is falling short on enrollment as well as financial goals.

Faculty members from various departments voiced their concerns with Global Campus and making it a “fourth campus,” including the confusion over whether the program is a campus or is not a campus.

Eve Harwood, associate professor of Music Education, brought up the concern of maintaining the level of selectivity and quality in admissions that the rest of the University is known for.

Other faculty voiced concerns with selection of quality faculty, wording on degrees awarded by Global Campus and the many unanswered questions about the future of the program. A major faculty concern was the lack of time for discussion before making a decision and several asked for the President to postpone taking this proposal to the Board of Trustee’s until a later meeting. White said he has no plans to delay this proposal on global campus.

“At this point there are no provisions to meet again before President White goes to the Board of Trustees,” said Nick Burbules, chair of the Senate’s executive committee. “If we had more time to revise the proposal it is possible we could have passed something more favorable.”

This defeat of the proposal is the final statement from the Senate, yet the trustees will have the final vote on the issue, Burbules added.

“The president is obliged to seek advice of the Senates and this the advice the Senate gave him,” he said.

White said he did not know what to expect coming into the meeting, but said he feels passionate that Global Campus can help address the crisis of access in education and that he will continue to pursue the proposal.