President Bill Chace announced recently that he
has decided to leave in place the University’s pre-employment
drug testing policy as written, rather than adopt a recommendation
of the University Senate to implement a new system using the Senate
to review divisions’ request to drug-test prospective employees.
Chace’s decision caps a year of contentious debate over the
policy, first instituted in spring 2002. Currently in place for
selected Emory divisions such as Campus Life, Facilities Manage-ment
and Community Services (which includes the Emory Police Department),
the policy calls for all potential new hires to submit to a drug
screening or have their employment offer rescinded.
Early in the 2002–03 academic year, a group of Carter Center
employees brought their objections to the policy before various
governance groups, and the debate culminated in the Senate’s
recommendation at its final meeting of the year in April. Chaired
by Senate President John Snarey, an ad hoc committee recommended
that, beginning this fall, any division wishing to test prospective
employees come before the Senate and make its case for doing so;
the Senate would then recommend to the president whether the division’s
proposal be accepted or rejected.
Snarey said the Senate executive committee will continue to oppose
the policy next academic year.
“We are disappointed and saddened that President Chace saw
fit to reject the Senate’s proposal out of hand,” Snarey
said. “Nevertheless, we remain hopeful. We have robust support
on campus and believe it is possible to eventually achieve a policy
that would be more in line with the policies of other great research
universities, such as Stanford and Harvard.”
Many universities, including those Snarey mentioned, drug-test only
certain groups of employees, such as police officers and shuttle
drivers.
“Although I greatly respect the hard work the Senate group
invested in this issue, and although I think its advice was intelligent
and well-considered, I decided to continue the policy of pre-employment
drug testing on the basis of my belief that the University should
have one policy, and not two, to govern our interest in setting
forth the belief that Emory should be as drug-free as possible,”
Chace said. “Substance abuse is costly and injurious to morale
in every workplace.”
Debate over the policy touched on a range of social issues, from
employee productivity to student safety and civil liberties, to
the fact that the policy applies only to prospective staff and not
faculty. Bryan Conley, senior associate director of development
for the Carter Center and one of the primary figures in the opposition
to the policy, said he was surprised and disappointed by Chace’s
decision, citing the range of campus groups that favored revising
the policy.
“With such solidarity against the policy, I just don’t
understand a ‘no changes’ decision,” Conley said.
“I remain hopeful that Emory’s tradition of respect
for democratic values and worker rights, as expressed so strongly
by the community on this issue, will eventually win out. And I hope
the Emory community will continue to explore alternatives to this
deeply flawed policy.”
Chace said he is still “60-40” in favor of the policy,
as he indicated at an Employee Council town hall meeting last fall
when asked about it. “I am not reluctant to say this was a
hard decision, for I understand many of the objections to our policy,”
he said.
Human Resources Vice President Alice Miller said the policy remains
mandatory for all new staff hires to the University, and Director
of Employment Del King said all Emory departments should be sending
prospective employees for testing by the end of this summer.
King said that as of the end of May, some 1,410 individuals had
been tested, with 42 testing positive.
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