Month: October 2010

Open Access Policy Proposed

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At the October 19 meeting of the Faculty Council, the Library Policy Committee (LPC) presented a proposal for a University open access policy that would enable immediate, unfettered access to Emory faculty authored scholarly articles. In April 2009, the Council approved a resolution to have the Center for Faculty Development and Excellence facilitate a series of conversations across campus exploring the possibility of an open access repository for articles by Emory faculty. The result of those discussions was the proposal endorsed by the LPC. Key points from the proposal:

  • authors will retain sufficient copyrights to their own work
  • an opt-out clause will be provided
  • the open access digital repository must be easy to use for authors and readers
  • the open access policy will be subject to periodic review and critique

For the next month, the LPC and Council encourage open conversation about the proposed policy; comments and questions are welcome at http://guides.main. library.emory.edu/OA. If faculty conversation indicates that the timing is appropriate, the Faculty Council will vote on a resolution to support the policy at its November meeting.

Learning Outcomes Assessment Committee Now Part of Faculty Council

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Prompted by Emory’s upcoming reaffirmation of accreditation, last fall Provost Earl Lewis appointed a Learning Outcomes Assessment Committee to provide faculty over- sight of the University’s assessment plans. Its charge was to

  • Review assessment plans from each of the schools and provide feedback
  • Share best practices and strategies
  • Help shape a “culture of assessment” that is uniquely Emory’s and that informs and strengthens the SACS reaccreditation process
  • Report to the Provost on key opportunities and challenges related to assessment at Emory.

At the October Council meeting, Ken Anderson (Oxford) presented on the work of this committee, which he chairs, and proposed that the committee become an open-ended ad-hoc committee of the Council. After discussion, the Council voted to approve the proposal, with the committee’s membership provost-appointed but Council approved.

Discussions of Grievance Policies Continue

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Continuing an examination begun at its September meeting, Faculty Council chair Steve Everett (College) presented a model for a faculty conciliation and mediation program from Case Western Reserve University, developed by that institution’s Faculty Senate and underwritten by its provost’s office. Drawing a distinction between a mediation process and a hearing process, Emory’s Faculty Hearing Committee chair James Hughes (Law) noted that “it’s difficult to find information to invoke the [hearing] process” and suggested that faculty may have rights they are not aware of because of a lack of accessible information. It was also noted that while a faculty hearing process was approved in 1998, a simultaneous proposal for a mediation process was shelved. Having approved the formation of an ad-hoc subcommittee on the issue, the Council agreed to appoint that committee and begin the task of identifying existing resources and policies at Emory and models and options for revisiting the possibility of a mediation process for faculty.