It was a get-in and get-out kind of day for the University Academic Senate during its monthly meeting Monday. Adjourning only a few minutes after the hour mark, the Senate breezed through a light agenda, and group discussion was often peppered with witty quips from members.

Among the items taken up by the Senate was a report from the Committee on Academic Policies and Issues about creating a policy on dissemination of Senate documents.

During the January meeting, Christine Krueger, an associate professor of English and chair of the UAS, presented the Senate with a letter asking the body if a policy should be formulated that would potentially classify certain documents or create guidelines for who has access to them.

The report, accepted by the Senate, recommended that a policy be created for all written, verbalized or electronic communications.

There was some skepticism over such a policy. William Thorn, an associate professor of journalism, said that “confidential” is a very tricky word.

“Confidentiality is a term that can easily be abused, especially by governing bodies, which the Senate is,” Thorn said. “There has to be serious discussion over who decides what is classified or privileged and what the criteria are.”

As part of the report, CAPI offered to draft a policy in time for fall 2011. After discussion, the Senate passed a motion asking the committee to do just that.

Provost John Pauly gave an update on enrollment figures for the incoming freshman class. Pauly said the university received around 22,000 applications, of which 57 percent had been admitted.

A motion was also passed regarding the faculty grievance policy. Pauly said there were no substantive changes to the policy, but the wording was updated.