Sparked by a series of proposals from the Educational Programs and Curriculum committee, the debate Tuesday at the Baker University Faculty Senate meeting has set the stage for several important votes in December.

EPC Chairman Jacob Bucher suggested three major changes involving interterm.

An ad-hoc committee was formed last year to research the benefits of interterm in order to determine whether a change in the number of required interterms was beneficial.

“The ad-hoc recommended going from three to two,” Bucher said. “EPC thought it made just as much sense or more sense to go from three to one, that one being in your first full-year at Baker for retention purposes, but still maintaining some of the freedom and opportunities and experiences interterm offers.”

If the motion passes, all transfer students and freshmen will be required to take an interterm within the first 12 months of their time at Baker.

Upperclassmen will still have the opportunity to take multiple interterm classes for credit.

If the number of required interterms decreases, Bucher made a motion to lower the number of required total credit hours from 132 to 126.<br/>

The senate debated on whether or not interterm classes should be graded and if they should include regular catalog courses.

Several senators said condensing a traditional class into a 13-day period would compromise course quality.

“To me, this is like, in a sense, are we McDonald’s or are we Baker?” Leonard Ortiz, assistant professor of history, said. “Do we offer fast-food academics, or do we deliver quality, creative instruction for students?”

However, others argued interterm would provide a convenient and suitable opportunity to fulfill some requirements.<br/>

“There are some unique experiences that are part of other disciplines that would fit well,” Professor of Biology Darcy Russell said. “I know the education discipline needs the kids to go into classrooms and be in classrooms, and they have a couple of courses that fit beautifully into this, and they’re regular catalog courses. “

These motions will have to lie over until the senate votes at the December meeting.