Following an inquiry last fall about policies governing early withdrawal of funds from a retirement account, the Faculty Council heard a report from Vice President for Human Re- sources Peter Barnes at its March 20 meeting. Barnes said that Emory’s policy, which allows pre-retirement cash withdrawal only from employee contributions for employees who have reached 59 1⁄2 years of age, is consistent with “the purpose of the retirement plan,” which “isn’t intended as a future cash supplement” for current employees. Barnes also discussed a change to the medical benefits policy for dependents of employees who die while employed at Emory. Currently, if an employee who dies has at least 10 years of service and is at least 55 years old, the spouse, partner, or dependents may continue to participate in the medical plan at the active employee rate. For all others, spouses, partners, and dependents may con- tinue under COBRA. “The change we recommended to the cabinet, which was approved, was for Emory to subsidize the COBRA benefit for a surviving spouse, partner, or any dependent children for six months for all regular employees,” Barnes said.
Month: March 2012
Gray Book Undergoing Updates
Senior Vice Provost for Academic Affairs Claire Sterk spoke with the Council about the process of updating the “Gray Book,” the statement of principles governing faculty relationships with the university. “Except for some minor revisions, we have not substantially revised our Gray Book since 1998,” Sterk said, noting that most of the proposed changes would bring the book into alignment with current practice. “Moving forward the Gray Book will also become a ‘living’ or virtual document,” she added. Aside from minor editorial updates, the proposed changes aim to
- clarify questions of how limited faculty appointments are made,
- simplify the plethora of titles currently used around the university for non-ten- ure track faculty, and
- clarify the meanings of “retirement” and the “emeritus” title.
Sterk requested a Council endorsement of the proposed changes, after which they would be reviewed by the Council of Deans, President’s Cabinet, and Board of Trustees. The Council will consider an endorsement in April.
Grievance Policy Committee: Ombuds Office
An ad hoc committee formed in 2010 to examine faculty grievance policies and procedures around the university recommended that Emory create an Ombuds Office to “provide a listening ear for faculty, provide a venue for effots to resolve . . . workplace conflicts, and also serve as a resource to train university personnel in conflict resolution and about university venues for resolution of various sorts of faculty workplace problems,” according to the committee’s report. Emory currently has structures to address serious problems around promotion and tenure, claims of illegal discrimination and other illegality, and research misconduct. But committee chair Bill Buzbee called Emory “completely an outlier” among peer institutions for the absence of a structure to address other conflicts, most of which arise in hierarchical relationships, so that they might be prevented or alleviated before they escalate. President Wagner asked that he and Provost Lewis be permitted to return to the Council to respond to the recommendations at a subsequent meeting.