Marianne Pelton is the new Chair of Senate
After four years, Jonathon Sumner’s term as Chair of Senate is coming to an end. In his role as Program Coordinator for Science, Jonathon will remain a senator while continuing to teach Physics.
Marianne Pelton (Faculty, Political Science) will begin her term in the fall semester. During Senate, her main responsibilities will be to facilitate working through the agenda and to apply the rules of order. She will also be responsible for planning meetings, chairing the Academic Planning Committee, and representing Senate at meetings of the Board of Governors.
Dawson teacher since 2007
Marianne joined Dawson in 2007 as a teacher of Political Science. Her experience at Dawson includes acting as Chair of Political Science and Sociology from 2011-2013 and serving as a senator for four years. She is currently a member of the Social Science Executive Committee and the Social Science Program Revision Committee.
“It is an interesting and important body,” Marianne said. “As a political scientist, I am interested in policies and structures that make decision-making work well.”
Role of Senate
Jonathon explained the main roles of Senate, known as a Commission des études in French CEGEPs, as:
- reviewing and approving program revisions
- providing feedback on policies, especially the Institutional Student Evaluation Policy (ISEP) and the Institutional Program Evaluation Policy (IPEP)
- and giving advice to the Board of Governors about specific issues, such as the appointment and evaluation of the Director General and the Academic Dean.
The Senate President is the Academic Dean, who will be new in the fall. Support is provided by the Office of the Academic Dean.
All categories of employees and students are represented on Senate. There are 35 senators, including 18 teachers. Some senators are elected by their peers and others are appointed by the Academic Dean. The complete list of senators is here.
Coming up
Marianne’s first meeting as Chair is slated for Sept. 14. One important item that is expected to come to Senate over the next year is the program revision for Social Science.
Marianne and Jonathon would like to share more information about Senate in D News in the coming year. Anyone at Dawson is welcome to attend Senate meetings.
