The March faculty assembly included discussions on enrollment, debates over the scope and payment of Emerson’s ombudsperson, and multiple instances of breaches of confidentiality from February’s faculty assembly.
The meeting was opened with an announcement regarding The Berkeley Beacon’s reporting practices on the Faculty Assembly. Since the onset of the academic year, Beacon reporters have had to gain the explicit consent of faculty members to quote from the assembly after the fact—a practice that is not in line with standard journalistic ethics.
The Faculty Council moved to change this to better reflect industry practices after circulating a memo written by the sitting Editor-in-Chief Adri Pray.
“If anyone speaking in assembly does not want to be quoted in The Beacon, please explicitly state at the beginning that what you’re saying is off the record, and The Beacon reporter present will honor this,” Nelli Sargsyan, chair of faculty council, said.
Sargsyan then addressed the recent breach of executive session confidentiality as outlined by Robert’s Rules from the February assembly meeting. She said there were three reported instances of the breach, including one person naming a colleague to a disciplinary office. Sargsyan informed the assembly of the discussions happening among the Faculty Council to determine future consequences for breaches of confidentiality.
The faculty then engaged in a 25-minute presentation and discussion about enrollment, which was facilitated by Matt Boyce, Emerson’s vice president of enrollment management. The details of the presentation and subsequent discussion were not immediately available for publication.
Oliver Katz, treasurer and representative present from the Student Government Association, presented updates from the student body, highlighting the extended Lion’s Den hours, which SGA pushed for last month following community feedback.
Katz then introduced a change to the attendance policy SGA is pursuing. The bill, S.B. 1, An Act Relative to the Attendance Policy of the College, was originally introduced in October. Katz said SGA will be moving to change the Faculty Handbook, noting how the current attendance policy does not account for all reasons students miss class, citing menstruation as a possible reason.
The assembly then recognized Mneesha Gellman, founder and director of Emerson Prison Initiatives and political science professor, who thanked the assembly for the large turnout at the EPI Conference last week. More than 400 students attended the event on Tuesday, according to Gellman.
“It was really powerful to be in that space,” Gellman said. “It felt like a really important gathering and commitment of our values in terms of expanding access to education, especially at a time when education is so fraught and under attack.”
Many faculty members expressed their support and appreciation for the conference.
Adam Franklin-Lyons, faculty council’s vice chair, then read the language of the bylaw revisions that will be debated and voted on in April’s faculty assembly.
Start dates for some faculty council positions are currently slated for Sept. 1, though voting happens in April. One of the proposed bylaw changes is to change start dates to positions to the Monday following graduation, allowing faculty to be in their role over the summer. Other proposed changes include officially adding email as a standard mode of communication and allowing the faculty assembly to vote on members of special committees instead of being appointed by the faculty council.
The assembly briefly discussed proposed changes to faculty dossiers regarding tenure and promotions. Faculty members immediately questioned the rationale behind the changes, which mainly focused on establishing word limits on faculty dossiers.
Sargsyan reminded the assembly that this motion will be up for debate at next month’s meeting.
Faculty assembly then voted on the Faculty Status Committee, of which 126 of 142 voted “yes”—an 89% majority. The FSC evaluates requests for promotions and tenure, meeting to review faculty dossiers and give recommendations to the provost.
The members voted in were associate communication sciences and disorders professor Joanne Lasker, communication studies professor Rich West, associate journalism professor Paul Niwa, performing arts professor Craig Mathers, visual media arts professor Shujen Wang, associate writing, literature, and publishing professor Roy Kamada, and associate Marlboro Institute professor Seth Harter.
The last motion that was introduced sought to establish a full-time ombudsperson at Emerson. An “ombudsperson” or “ombudsman” is a “representative of the people.” The ombudsperson’s main role is to mitigate conflict by meeting with faculty and providing relevant resources. Carol Parker currently acts as Emerson’s ombudsperson, but the motion would expand the role and specify which departments paid the ombudsperson.
“Some people might be suspicious of this person’s fealty if they’re only funded by the provost’s office,” Matt McMahon, assistant professor of comedic arts, said. “We think the cost should be co-equally shared by the provost, by the faculty union, and by the staff union, should they be involved.”
There was a motion to table the discussion and continue it at the next faculty assembly on April 22.
