Emory Report
October 6, 2008
Volume 61, Number 7


 

   

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October 6
, 2008
University Governance Roundup

By leslie King

Employee Council sets out plan to ‘Experience Emory’
Last year the Employee Council’s theme was “Discovering Emory;” this year it’s “Experiencing Emory.”
Council president Matt Engelhardt says, “Each month we will sponsor at least one event for Employee Council members to promote among staff – these include tours, athletic events, performing arts and other ways to participate in the life of the Emory community.”

President Jim Wagner and Senior Vice Provost for Community and Diversity Ozzie Harris gave welcome addresses at the first meeting. Tracy Clark of the Schwartz Center previewed the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, which performed Sept. 26, and Human Resources’ Katherine Hinson described employee discounts at Sparkfly.

Engelhardt then conducted the member orientation and led a discussion of ways to raise awareness of the council to the University community.

In addition to guest speakers, the council plans a series of presentations on “Experience Emory,” human resources information and communications topics with practical ways to enhance communication on the job.

Faculty recruitment, Emeritus College Faculty Council issues
Following reports from the standing committees, the Faculty Council had a 45-minute retreat, council president Steven Culler says, “dividing into groups to talk about what we’d like to address this year.”

Among the most-frequently mentioned issues, Culler says, were faculty recruitment, dual-career potential hires; the search process for faculty and how the decision is made to fund or not to fund a search; work-life initiatives such as quality childcare for faculty members with young children; fringe benefits and retirement benefits, a perennial issue of interest; how the Emeritus College can be reorganized and made more helpful to the faculty; and barriers to interdisciplinary research.

University Senate creates first diversity committee
New this year for the University Senate: A diversity committee, which has already met and divided into three sub-groups for its issues, says senate president Culler (by tradition, the same person serves as the president of the University Senate and the president of the Faculty Council).

At the first meeting, President Jim Wagner spoke about the Campaign Emory kickoff and the economy’s impact on the budget.

Provost Earl Lewis spoke to the members about Emory College’s “freshman portfolio experiment” in which incoming freshmen will build a portfolio for their future career or graduate school admission, Culler said. The thinking is they’ll have something to show when they enter the job market or apply for graduate school, he explains. The students will collect letters of recommendation, add their outstanding research papers and compile other similar materials.

The introductory meeting took care of “technical issues,” Culler says, including voting on the updated bylaws that reflect the changes in the organizational chart and approving the rosters of the 10 standing subcommittees.