The NIU Council on Instruction postponed action Thursday on the university bylaws revisions and changed course review periods.

Jim Banovetz, representative from the Presidential Task Force on Constitutional Revision, proposed the new university bylaws for the apportionment of faculty seats on the three academic councils—the Academic Planning Council, the Graduate Council and the Undergraduate Coordinating Council.

The new bylaws were proposed to assure each college of the university an adequate proportion of representation on each council.

Banovetz proposed four objectives on which the Presidential Task Force based the revising of the bylaws. One objective noted was to strengthen and enhance the roll of the faculty in not only the university governance but also in the forming of the class curriculum.

Another objective was to decentralize the decision-making process so decisions concerning certain colleges and departments would be made by those colleges and departments.

This process also would quicken the decision-making process by letting matters be solved at the college or departmental level rather than at a higher level of the university.

Banovetz also said the proposed bylaws would give a greater and more equal representation to all colleges and departments.

However, the COI found the proposed bylaws would achieve the opposite result. They found the bylaws were overly complicated and the development of subcommittees only would have prolonged the decision-making process.

Marilyn Skinner, department chair of Foreign Languages and Literatures, dicussed the proposal of a Master of Arts degree in Foreign Language and Literatures. Skinner explained to the council that a graduate program in the foreign languages would greatly benefit the department as a whole.

Another change in the department would be the use of graduate assistants to teach the beginning and intermediate level courses.

These changes would allow the department to offer more sections in the foreign languages, not only in the lower level courses but also in the 300- and 400-level courses.

Skinner said, “Students taking four years of foreign language in high school and then attending NIU and signing up for 300- and 400-level courses is a current problem that exists in the department.

“As of now, we do not have enough qualified instructors to teach more upper level sections,” she said.