The University Council in a special meeting Wednesday moved to have the Constitutional Task Force more closely examine a proposed amendment concerning the NIU faculty sabbatical leave policy.

In a session called to discuss bylaw proposals for the revised NIU constitution, the University Council Personnel Committee presented an alternative version to article eight, which deals with the sabbatical leave policy for NIU faculty.

Section 8.21 of the task force’s proposal, concerning applications for sabbatical leaves, stated, “Each applicant for sabbatical leave shall propose a program of professional merit which is capable of being substantially advanced by means of the leave.”

The committee proposal substituted the words “scholarship_ research or artistry_” for “professional merit.”

Jerrold Zar, committee member and dean of the NIU Graduate School, said the committee made this change as a point of clarification.

He said, “The committee thought the guidelines for faculty members proposing sabbaticals were not clear enough, or specific enough (under the task force’s policy.) After much discussion, we decided by majority that a leave should be oriented towards some scholarly achievement.

“I think a sabbatical should be used to advance a faculty member in his or her research or artistic projects,” Zar said.

David Ripley, Learning and Education Policy Studies professor and committee member, disagreed with the committee proposal.

He said, “I moved not to support the UCPC amendment, and I think we should keep the original proposal for article eight.”

Ripley said he opposed the amendment because it imposed “much narrower” criteria on the granting of sabbatical leaves.

“I don’t think scholarship is the sole reason for our existence,” he said.

Ripley urged the council to reject the committee’s amendment, saying he saw no urgent reason for its immediate adoption.

The council voted to table the amendment for further consideration by the task force.

Jim Giles, NIU English professor and chairman of the task force, said the Board of Regents will give the revised constitution its final examination for approval when they meet at NIU March 23 and 24.

Giles said the proposed bylaw amendments will be reviewed by the task force at its meeting Feb. 25. “We are hoping to have the bylaws voted upon at the University Council meeting in March. That is still possible.”

The council meeting Wednesday was scheduled from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., and members were to have discussed bylaw proposals for articles one through 12.

However, the council had only the chance to examine the first eight bylaw articles by 6 p.m.

A special council meeting to examine articles 13 through 19 is scheduled for 7 p.m to 10 p.m. March 1. UC Executive Secretary Judy Bischoff said this time might be changed to accomodate the discussion of articles nine through 12.