Normally, business items to be brought before the Senate are reviewed by the Senate Executive Committee before becoming a Senate agenda item. Business items may also be introduced at the Senate from the floor. This document is a guide to preparing documents for the Executive Committee or the Senate.
Please prepare your resolution beginning with Whereas clauses describing the rationale, reasoning or conditions leading to the resolution. The Resolved clause(s) should describe an action that the maker of the resolution would like the Senate to take. Please consult Robert's Rules of Order for more detail on preparing resolutions.
If resolutions have passed through other committees, the names of those committees and the legislative history of the resolution should be provided in a cover sheet to the actual resolution itself. If the resolution is from a committee other than a Senate committee, a list of committee members is also desired.
New curricular programs and program revisions must go through the Educational Policies committee. New curricular program proposals should provide a clear rationale for the creation of the program, details of the curriculum, and impact on the department or departments in terms of faculty workload, fiscal resources and current curriculum.
Revisions of programs should provide a cover sheet to the actual curricular changes describing the rationale for the changes and any impacts as described above. Also, the old program and new program should be compared to clarify the change(s).
Further guidelines for Program and Course Revisions to EPC here.
If the policy is a revision of an existing policy, the proposed version should come to the Senate showing the proposed changes with strikeouts for deletions and italics for additions. A cover sheet should include the following: rationale for the changes, summary of the changes, any known history of the policy, and the outcome of reviews by other committees.
If it is a new policy, the cover sheet should explain the rationale for the policy, how it was developed, and what other bodies were consulted for feedback.
Written reports to the Senate should have an executive summary as a cover sheet to the report, noting the significant items or findings of the report.
Items that are not resolutions, policies or related to programs should clearly state what is being asked of the Senate and should include any items cited above that are pertinent to the document.