Members of the Undergraduate Student Government (USG) Academic Assembly have high hopes for an increase in student representation within the University Faculty Senate.

At last week's meeting, Senate approved recommendations regarding faculty and student representation, which were made by the Senate Self-Study Committee.

These recommendations included decreasing the faculty ratio from 1-30 to 1-25 and increasing student representation from 9 to 10 percent.

As a student member of the Faculty Senate from the College of Agricultural Sciences, Scott Rhoads represents more than 1,000 students within his academic college.

Rhoads said he believes increased student representation will create a more efficient Senate.

"Every college and campus needs to be adequately represented by students," he said.

Bradley Hoagland, vice president of programming in Academic Assembly, said the new representation ratio would allow the body to be more efficient by trimming down the size.

"The new numbers would not cause the Senate to be so small that it would not have enough people to complete work that needs to be done," he said.

D. Josh Troxell, president of Academic Assembly, said it was not an actual percentage change, but rather a change from a set number to a percent.

Currently the set number for student representation is 21 students.

"By changing the set number to a percentage, the net result is a gain in anywhere from 1 to 5 student seats," Troxell said.

Student senators and faculty senators fill out a committee preference form that allows them to apply for their top three committee choices.

Each committee has a list of requirements and most committees require a student senator.

An increase in student representation would result in more students being involved with various Faculty Senate committees.

"Now that student seats might be decided on a percent rather than a set number, we have no need to fear loss in student representation," Troxell said.

The changes suggested by the Senate Self-Study Committee that were passed last week are still in the recommendation stage, he said.

Troxell, along with Christopher Bise, chair for the Faculty Senate, and others will have to figure out who can and cannot participate as members within Senate.

"From there we discuss how [representation] will change," Troxell said.

The recommendations will be sent to the Committee on Committees and Rules, and that group will draft the legislation. This will require changing the Senate constitution, Troxell said.

Later, the legislation will come up for a vote.

Troxell said there is still a chance the changes in representation could fail at a later point in time.

"However, the recommendation on the increase in student representation passed almost unanimously," he said.

"I can't imagine that vote will change all of the sudden."

Ian Rosenberger, USG president, said lowering the faculty ratio and increasing student representation would streamline productivity.

"Anytime there is an increase in student voices, it is great news," he said. "We have really strong voices."

Hoagland said the increase in student representation gives students a much stronger voice.

"Students voiced their concerns at the Senate meeting, and their voices were heard," he said.