Faculty across California are mobilizing in response to a lack of representation on the California State University Board of Trustees.

Chico State’s Academic Senate passed a resolution last Thursday urging Gov. Jerry Brown to appoint a faculty trustee in time for the board’s next meeting on Nov. 5.

The governor is required to choose between two nominees made by the statewide Academic Senate. So far, he has not made a choice between Steven Stepanek, a professor at Cal State Northridge, and incumbent trustee Bernadette Cheyne, a Humboldt State professor.

There has been no indication that the governor will reject the nominations he has received, said Kathleen Kaiser, Chico State’s representative to the statewide senate. It’s not clear why the governor has not already made an appointment.

Half of the universities in the CSU system have sent in similar resolutions and more are on the way, said Paula Sylvester, chair of the Academic Senate.

One-third of the board’s meetings for this academic year have already taken place, Kaiser said. If an appointment is not made by the second week of November, half of the meetings will have passed without a faculty representative.

Also at last week’s meeting:

The senate voted to discontinue minor programs for Medieval Studies and Renaissance Studies so they could be combined.

Belle Wei, provost and vice president for academic affairs, reported statistics for the Intrasystem Concurrent Enrollment courses affecting Chico State. These five online courses, which students from other CSU campus can enroll in, have 74 students from Chico State and 25 from other universities. Eleven Chico State students are currently enrolled in courses based in other campuses.

Nicholas Carr can be reached at [email protected] or @theorion_news on Twitter.