President Lester Lefton gave remarks on the start of the school year and the high academic standings of the freshman class during the first Faculty Senate meeting of the fall semester.

Lefton also discussed the progress of the plans to renovate downtown and the campus, presenting two videos to demonstrate the future look of the campus.

“It is going to change the nature of the student experience,” Lefton said.

After Senate Chair Paul Farrell gave his remarks about investing in projects that will benefit the future of the students, the senate welcomed nine Fulbright Scholars to the meeting.

Computer science professor Arden Ruttan also spoke to the senate about the goals the University Council on Technology has worked on the past year, including improvements to the university’s search engine.

Ruttan said some of the future plans of the council include looking at the use of clicker technology to replace standard bubble sheets for testing and managing large data sets from various departments.

The senate elected senators and alternates for the Ohio Faculty Council, Committee on Administrative Officers and Faculty Ethics Committee. Senate members also nominated senators for the Faculty Senate Budget Advisory Committee.

The biggest change would be that appeals would go through a board of faculty members, Jarvie said.

Jarvie said he will bring back the revised policy with the senate’s edits before presenting it to the Board of Trustees.

Contact Alicia Balog at [email protected].