The Senate voted at its Feb. 28 meeting to table a proposal that would triple the number of general staff representatives on the Senate.
Employee Council President-Elect Kay Pendleton, one of three staff representatives on the Senate, presented the proposal. Pendleton said that Emory's 2,000 faculty members are represented by 17 Senate members, and nearly 10,000 students are represented by 11 Senate members. The University's more than 7,000 staff members, however, are currently represented by three Senate members: the immediate past-president, president and president-elect of the Employee Council.
Under the proposal, six staff members would be elected to serve on the Senate with the three existing staff representatives, for a total of nine. In addition, the Senate's 10 committee chairs, who include both faculty and staff, are also voting members. This year, one of the 10 chairs is a staff member, while the remaining nine chairs are faculty members.
President Bill Chace said that while he supports the argument for proportional Senate representation among faculty, staff and students, such proportionality might be more effectively achieved by reducing the numbers of representatives in the faculty and student categories. "I think the Senate needs to ask itself what size body this should be," Chace said. "There is the small but humanly important question of the chamber in which the Senate meets," he said in reference to the Administration Building's fourth floor board room, which is usually crowded beyond its capacity at most monthly Senate meetings.
A number of Senate members expressed opposition to reducing the number of representatives in favor of considering a new, larger meeting space for the Senate.
Frank Lechner of the sociology department moved that the matter be tabled until the Senate's March 28 meeting to allow more time for discussion. The motion to table passed 13-10.
The Senate also approved an amendment to its bylaws that creates an appeals process. Under the new process, if the president of the University rejects a Senate recommendation, the Senate can, with a two-thirds vote, appeal the decision to the appropriate Board of Trustees Committee. With committee approval, the matter then could be referred to the Trustees' Executive Committee and/or the full board.
"I think this is a fine proposal," Chace said before the vote. "It makes an awful lot of sense to me, although it's the kind of lever I hope would never have to be used."
After some minor revisions, the Senate approved a resolution that reads as follows: "Members of Emory University should have appropriate access for research and scholarly activities to the information resources offered by all Emory libraries. To that end, the University administration, academic deans and librarians should seek to remove budgetary barriers to access and support." The original version of the proposal did not refer to the administration or academic deans.
The Commission's Faculty Concerns Committee has distributed surveys to deans and department chairs asking how they handle maternity leave for women faculty, committee chair Leslie Taylor announced at the Commission's March 2 meeting.
Taylor said another survey will soon be distributed to women faculty asking them to relate their experiences with maternity leave issues. Faculty maternity leave emerged as an issue of concern in the Commission last fall. Although a Medical and Family Leave Policy was adopted two years ago, several women faculty members expressed concern last semester that the policy is not being applied to women faculty with the same degree of equity as women staff.
--Dan Treadaway