Faculty Senate

Ad Hoc Academic Innovation and Foresight Committee

Role Statement

The Ad Hoc Academic Innovation and Foresight Committee will serve as an oversight committee to identify, examine, and make recommendations regarding emerging academic opportunities, models, and challenges that may affect undergraduate education and WMU's academic future. It will conduct special studies that include but are not limited to environmental scanning and benchmarking. Advise the Faculty Senate Executive Board regarding cross-college discussion and collaboration; engagement in faculty development of university-wide academic initiatives and strategies that support academic quality, student success, institutional distinctiveness, and WMU's long-term academic vitality.

2026-27 Charges

In addition to its specific responsibilities listed in the Ad Hoc Academic Innovation and Foresight Committee’s role statement and the work of its standing committees if such exist, the Faculty Senate Executive Board charges the AdHoc-AIFC to consider, as a committee of the whole or through the appropriate committees or task forces, the following:

  1. Provide faculty leadership and shared-governance engagement in Experience-Driven Learning (EDL) through partnership with the Experience-Driven Learning Workgroup to bring a faculty-led, cross-disciplinary perspective to the continued development of WMU’s EDL initiative.
  2. Engage faculty in reviewing emerging EDL priorities and practices, identify disciplinary opportunities and concerns, and provide recommendations regarding the long-term integration and sustainability of EDL across the academic experience. Conclude the initiative by producing a report to the Executive Board or a Memorandum of Action.
  3. Examine how artificial intelligence is changing the knowledge and skills students need for academic, professional, and civic life. Conduct benchmarking to identify appropriate competencies for the critical, ethical, responsible, and effective use of AI across disciplines. Conclude the initiative by producing a report to the Executive Board or a Memorandum of Action.
  4. Explore whether and how identified AI competencies should be incorporated into WMU Essential Studies or other undergraduate curricular requirements. Produce recommendations by the end of the 2026-27 academic year. Conclude the initiative by producing a report to the Executive Board or a Memorandum of Action.
  5. Explore reduced-credit degrees models to identify the academic and governance questions WMU would need to address before pursuing reduced-credit degrees. Produce recommendations by the end of the 2026-27 academic year. Conclude the initiative by producing a report to the Executive Board or a Memorandum of Action.
  6. Conduct environmental scans and benchmarking of reduced-credit degree models in higher education. Examine their purposes, structures, regulatory and accreditation considerations, potential benefits and risks, implications for academic quality and general education, effects on time and cost to degree, transfer and graduate-school considerations, and potential applicability to WMU programs. Conclude the initiative by producing a report to the Executive Board or a Memorandum of Action.
  7. Review the scope and description of the council’s role statement and assess the effectiveness of the council’s practices and continuing need. Identifying if the committee should conclude, be incorporated into an existing Faculty Senate council/committee, or be incorporated into the Faculty Senate Bylaws as a standing council or committee. Produce recommendations by the end of the 2026-27 academic year. Conclude the initiative by producing a report to the Executive Board or a Memorandum of Action.

Approved by the Faculty Senate Executive Board on Sept. 11, 2026.

Printable version of the AdHoc-AIFC 2026-27 Charges.

NOTE: The AdHoc-AIFC will seek information from related administrative offices to maintain communications with those offices on issues directly related to them. Committee recommendations are to be submitted to the Executive Board in the form of a memorandum of action (MOA) on which the recommendation(s) is/are stated. Draft MOAs should be submitted using the MOA template.

REPORTING: The AdHoc-AIFC chairperson shall provide a written report of the committee’s accomplishments and progress for the year; list the above charges noting each item’s progress and current status; any other activities undertaken; and draft possible charges for the 2027-28 academic year, no later than May 30, 2027. Reports should be submitted using the Year-End Report template.