BFC elects new president for '07-'09

On May 18, The Bloomington Faculty Council announced Lisa Pratt as its new president for the term of 2007-2009. \nPublic affairs professor Ted Miller has been the president of BFC for the last two years and will be retiring once his presidential term is completed. \nAccording to the BFC home page, the council began in 1975 and is a representative body of elected members from the Bloomington campus. \nNewly elected Agenda Committee members are Julie Bobay of the libraries department, Laura Ginger of business, Kevin Hunt of anthropology, Alex Tanford of law and Herb Terry of telecommunications. \nPratt, a professor of geological sciences, is the first woman to hold the office in almost 20 years.\nKelly Kish, chief of staff of the BFC, explained that the last female who held the council’s presidency was Myrtle Scott from the School of Education during the 1990-1991 term. \nKish said three other women held office before Scott, and including Pratt, there have been five women total during the last 30 years. \n“There hasn’t been a woman elected in the last few years because there hasn’t been a woman’s name on the ballot,” Kish said. \n Kish said the council is in a transition phase right now, with Pratt working alongside Miller before she officially assumes the role.\n“Usually we elect presidents earlier,” Kish said. “We had some delays in the election, and usually it’s a stable transition.” \nPratt said it is too early to say what she plans to do in the future, but there will be a number of continuing items that the BFC will pick up. \n“One of the items we’ll be monitoring will be the general education requirements,” Pratt said. \nIn October 2006, the BFC approved a set of general education requirements for all Bloomington students that will eventually be incorporated into all degree programs. \nPratt added that, with new President-elect Michael McRobbie and a new provost on the way, the BFC will have to see what matters they plan to address, and from there they will prioritize in what order they want to address them.