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March 3, 2008
University Governance Roundup

By Leslie King

Employee Council makes annual visit to Oxford campus
February’s Employee Council meeting was the annual one at Oxford College, where the group was greeted by Myra Frady, dean of resource planning and chief financial officer of Oxford College.

Council president Iruka Ndubuizu said the council was given an update on the construction program under way at the Newton County campus. Gary Hauk, University vice president and deputy to the president, spoke on the history of Emory, including the founding of the two campuses, at Oxford and Druid Hills.

The council is seeking internal nominations for its officers for next year. The election will be at the April meeting.

Ndubuizu said the council was looking ahead to its March 19 meeting at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center with featured speaker Marshall Duke, Charles Howard Candler Professor of Psychology.
Also in March, the council will host a town hall March 27. President Jim Wagner and Executive Vice President of Finance and Administration Mike Mandl will speak on “Next Steps,” about the University’s plans for its future.

Faculty Council notes salary trends, seeks nominations
Faculty salaries, faculty retention and a call for nominations were on the Faculty Council agenda for the February meeting.
Claire Sterk, senior vice provost of academic planning and faculty development, discussed faculty salary trends.

Research shows “at Emory, salaries stack up well compared to our benchmark institutions,” council president Nadine Kaslow said. Sterk plans to present a finer analysis of this information in the future, Kaslow added. While overall, “faculty salaries look good compared to our peers,” she said, “there are processes in place to address individual ones that need to be addressed.”

Continuing this year’s theme of faculty retention, council members engaged in an exercise to help think through quality of life categories to be incorporated in a survey to determine what makes faculty members come to or stay at an institution.

Among the featured speakers was Oxford College Dean Stephen Bowen who presented the Oxford Student Report.

A call for nominations is out for next year’s faculty chair, who also becomes University Senate president, to be chosen at the March meeting.

Also going out is a call for faculty counselors to serve on committees of the Board of Trustees. The majority of trustees’ committees have a faculty counselor and “we’ll be replenishing those,” Kaslow said.

University Senate gets updates on initiatives
University Senate members were updated on a number of initiatives, including sustainability and work-life balance.

On the sustainability front, the new graduate school housing will be EarthCraft-certified, according to senate president Nadine Kaslow.

Biology professor Ron Calabrese is leading the senate initiative on recycling, she said. Plans are to enhance community education on recycling and evaluate two campus buildings’ recycling processes as part of the effort to model the senate’s project.

Secretary of the University Rosemary Magee and Vice President of Human Resources Peter Barnes reported on the recently unveiled Work-Life Initiative. They discussed the six major goals of the initiative and the steps needed to reach them. Next will be implementation and prioritization.

The senate is seriously engaged in the prevention of intimate partner violence, Kaslow said. Members want more education on the issue, with the goal of ensuring the safety of everyone on campus.

Carter Center CEO John Hardman talked about the programs at the center, which has strong links to Emory.