Judy Raggi Moore, chair of the Senate Campus Life Committee, submitted a proposal from her committee recommending that: 1) the University community be encouraged to centralize all communications and information through e-mail, via an electronic bulletin board and calendar of events. ["Though no one should be obliged to seek this information," the recommendation reads, "it should be available and presented in a very user-friendly fashion"]; 2) a statement be made encouraging a reduction in paper use; and 3) the Senate be included in reviewing the guidelines for moderating which messages are sent to campus e-mail users after such guidelines are written.
Moore, along with representatives from the Information Technology Division (ITD), told the Senate that an ITD committee is currently examining the issue of whether e-mail should be used as a means of communicating with all members of the Emory community and whether the University should purchase the equipment to make such communication possible.
The Campus Life Committee, Moore said, envisions an electronic communications system that would resemble the current LearnLink System, including click-on access to a comprehensive calendar of campus events and a section for messages to the community. The practice of sending e-mail messages to all campus users, Moore explained, would be reserved for extremely urgent messages.
Several Senate members expressed concern that the Campus Life Committee's proposal did not specifically delineate which type of communications would be automatically sent to all users and which type would merely be available to users who seek them out. While expressing a general sense of support for the proposal's goals, the Senate voted to table the proposal until the committee has an opportunity to address the Senate's concerns in the language of the proposal.
In other business, the Senate declined to take action on a proposal to change the language of the policy governing the granting of faculty emeritus status. Currently, all faculty who retire from Emory with the required years of service are automatically granted the title of Professor Emeritus. The proposed wording change, which was recommended for approval by the Faculty Council on Oct. 17, calls for all emeritus appointments to be within the rank at the time of retirement, such as Associate Professor Emeritus.
Several Senate members said the current policy should not be changed because the granting of Professor Emeritus status is an appropriate way for the University to honor faculty who have devoted the majority of their professional lives to Emory.
Vice Provost for Academic Affairs Harriet King, who brought the proposal to the Senate, said the proposed change originated from the concerns of several deans that the current policy grants an automatic promotion to some faculty members at retirement.
Senate President Richard Letz asked King to inform the deans of the Senate's concerns with changing the policy.
Joy Burnette, chair of the Council's Special Issues Committee, said that because information on the University's closing was not aired on local radio and televisions early enough the morning of Oct. 5, a substantial number of employees needlessly drove to work early under hazardous conditions. Several Council representatives said that while the University maintains an inclement weather phone number (727-1234), the pre-recorded message at that number had no information on the University's closing until after the point at which most employees would have to leave home in order to be on time for work.
In response to that occurrence, the Special Issues Committee asked the Council to approve a proposal that calls for the University to close automatically whenever the Georgia Department of Transportation issues an advisory to citizens not to drive due to safety hazards resulting from inclement weather conditions. The Council voted to approve the proposal, which will be forwarded to the University Senate Safety and Security Committee for further consideration.
In other business, the Special Issues Committee voted to send a letter to Associate Vice President for Human Resources Alice Miller asking her to discuss the issue of salary compression with the Council and to clarify the process by which the recent Compensation Management Project was conducted.
--Dan Treadaway
Editor's Note: The Inclement Weather Policy has been changed so that all closing decisions will be announced no later than 5:30 a.m.