Minutes of the Emory University Senate February 24, 1994 - 3:15 PM Room 400 Administration Building Members and guests recorded as present: Mike Berry Al Hartgraves Jack Millgard Todd Borow Gary Hauk Ulric Neisser Penny Castellano Myron Kaufman Marie Nitschke Paula Cattanach Frank Lechner Alisa Porter Louise Cook Richard Letz John Scott Alice Davis Mary Anne Lindskog Luther Smith William Dillingham Sondralyn McCard Dan Treadaway Barbara Greene-Plauth Michael McQuaide James R. Zaidan Frank Lechner, President of the Senate, called the meeting to order. The minutes of the January meeting were approved. Michael McQuaide, Chair of the Honorary Degrees Committee, presented a slate of 6 nominees for honorary degrees to be awarded at the 1995 Commencement ceremony. With unanimous consent, the Senate may vote on the nominations at the time of nomination, but some Senate members expressed a desire for more biographical data about the nominees. Gary Hauk, Secretary of the University, asked those who would like more information to contact him before the March meeting when the vote will be taken. Dr. Lechner presented to the Senate some proposed amendments to the Bylaws of the University Senate which reflect current practice. The changes officially recognize the position of President-Elect of the Senate and specify that the President-Elect shall be a member of the Senate Executive Committee. Dr. Lechner also recommended that the definition of a quorum be changed to a majority of the total elected membership. All these amendments were approved. Alice Miller, Associate Vice-President of Human Resources, passed out several charts outlining the procedures for handling staff grievances at the University. These included a flow chart showing how discriminatory harrassment complaints, scheduled for discussion later at the meeting, are handled. She mentioned that other institutions are being surveyed now in preparation for drafting new procedures. Ms. Miller then distributed several handouts providing a statistical picture of the new Emory Health Plan. She noted that the plan had helped contain health care cost, while at the same time expanding benefits such as the new dental plan now in place. She also mentioned that complaints, numbering less than 200, are low for a plan covering over 23,000 individuals. She announced plans for a new facility for the Emory community, a Center for Health and Wellness Promotion, that will house primary care doctors and dentists as well a fitness center for health enhancement. While the Emory Care plan is not yet providing subsidies for lower paid employees, she stated that the University is now in a position to consider that, with the figures from a year or two of Emory Care operation to guide planning. A question was raised about the high rate of increase in cost for employees as opposed to the University's cost. Ms. Miller said that these were expected to become equal in the future. The final item on the agenda was a discussion of Emory's policy on discriminatory harassment (see Attachment A). Mike Berry, President of the Student Government Association, reported that the SGA voted at its February meeting to call for a complete repeal of the University's policy on discriminatory harassment. Mr. Berry said that the action by the SGA was based on the belief that the policy has the potential for hindering the free exchange of ideas. Among the issues raised in the discussion which followed were: how has the policy been used, do Federal and state laws and other University policies adequately protect against harassment without the policy, does a policy like this impose more restrictions on Emory than would be legally allowed at public institutions, is the concern about freedom of expression created by the climate of the times and the weight of public opinion rather than the policy, do the words in this policy really mean what they say or do some words like sex and race have special meanings, would eliminating the references to oral and written expression make the policy better, would doing away with the policy hurt our efforts to build diversity on campus. Dr. Lechner ended discussion shortly after 5:00, noting that the issue needs to be given more thought. Discussion will continue at the next Senate meeting. The meeting adjourned at 5:10 p.m.