Aaron Burns | News Co-Editor

Associate Dean of Faculty Peter Steinfeld and Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean of Faculty Dr. David Evans recently submitted a proposal in for changes to the ACES program to faculty governance. The proposal, which makes several changes to the program, was brought before the Academic Affairs Committee of Faculty Senate last week for initial discussion but Steinfeld asked that it be tabled to seek more feedback and ideas from constituencies on campus.

Two key changes proposed have to do with where and by whom ACES events get planned and a significant decrease in the number of Signature ACES offered. Initially the proposal also reduced the number of required ACES events per semester from six to eight, but in the midst of committee discussion, Steinfeld, who had already vetted the proposal with school deans, said the requirement was likely to stay at eight although the distribution requirements would change.

The proposal suggests a redirection of the resources that have been used for ACES back towards the individual schools. The deans of each school would receive a certain amount of funding and would be responsible for producing a certain number of Scholarly Events per semester from that school.

One of the biggest changes proposed is concerning the ACES Signature Events. This year the number of Signature Events was four per semester, but if the proposal is passed that number would decrease from four per semester to perhaps one or two Signature Events per year. Steinfeld said that this wouldn’t mean the quality of the Signature Events would go down, but because of budget, the number of events has to decrease.

“We haven’t been able to do as many big ticket events. Everything is just getting more expensive,” Steinfeld said. “There’s a bit of a financial piece here…we’re trying to reduce costs around campus as many ways as possible right now. We wanted to protect and preserve ACES.”

While the required amount of attended events per semester is planned to stay at eight, there would be a different required distribution. As the proposal reads now, students would be required to attend five Scholarly Events (up from four), one Student Life Event (remaining the same), and two events of their choice, including, if they so choose, the annual Signature Event.

“The most important part of the program is the Scholarly Events. The Signatures are a nice addition to it, but it’s not really what the essence of what ACES is all about,” Steinfeld said. “We want to make sure the academic quality of an education is maintained. This keeps the focus on the academic side of it.”

Student Senate President and senior Seth Lindokken feels that reconstruction of the program allows the schools to have a bigger role in the process, which means a more beneficial experience for students.

“Although the current ACES proposal is still very much in the works, I feel that it is a good step in the right direction as the program moves forward. By giving the academic ACES events to the individual schools, we are giving faculty a more hands-on role in selecting events and speakers, which I feel will be beneficial to students,” Lindokken said.

Another purpose of the reorganization of ACES is to help strengthen the program by reintroducing the ACES committee.

“We have to try to reinvigorate the ACES committee, which hasn’t existed in years. It just got started again this year,” Steinfeld said. “That committee would take on an important role on what that one signature event per semester might be.”

At the meeting Steinfeld noted that the proposal is still under discussion and will likely have changes and updates before he brings it back to the Academic Affairs Committee in April. For the time being, the deans of each school are circulating the proposal to all of their faculty members. There were also Student Senators present at the meeting that can take the idea back to the students.

“I hope to get lots of feedback and perspectives that we can incorporate into the proposal,” Steinfeld said.

Graphic by Keyla Sosa