Emory Report

September 15, 1997

Volume 50, No. 4

ISSUES IN PROGRESS

University Senate

New Senate President Bill Cody welcomed the returning and new members of the University Senate in the body's first meeting of the 1997-98 year on Sept. 2 in the Rollins School of Public Health.

First on the agenda was presentation of the senate's theme for the year. Saying the phrase is "one that applies to all universities but especially to Emory," Cody introduced the theme: "A Place of Learning."

Cody listed six interrelated senses in which the theme could be interpreted:

• Emory is historically referred to as a place of learning.
• "A place of learning" also implies a place of teaching.
• The theme also connotes learning about service to the University, to the community and to the world.
• ·That Emory is a place of research, and the purpose of research is to learn.
• Learning about ourselves and our places in the community.
• Learning about values, both our own and others'.

President Bill Chace addressed the body and announced his intention to get Emory's trustees more involved with the day-to-day life of the University. He also explained in detail the incident involving the use of Oxford's chapel for a same-sex commitment ceremony this summer for those senate members who were not in town.

Interim Provost Rebecca Chopp welcomed the senate and thanked the body in advance for its work during the upcoming year. "In a very real sense, you are Emory University," she said. Chopp discussed a number of key issues the senate will face this year, including the Commission on Teaching's report, the campus master planning process and the Health Sciences strategic planning effort.

Committee chairs who were present then read the rosters of their respective groups for approval, and each listed a few items on which they would be working this year. Bill Size, chair of the committee on the environment, said his group is eager to work more closely with the campus master planning group to express the aesthetic and ecological concerns of the Emory community.

In the only new business of the meeting, Student Government Association President Jonathan Freimann announced that at the end of spring semester SGA passed a resolution stating that Emory's campus is "not accessible" to individuals with disabilities and that he intended to work closely with the senate to improve accessibility in several areas.