President James Wagner sought the perspectives of Faculty Council members on academic expression and free expression. Wagner framed the conversation with examples including the “elective and self-imposed restrictions” that individuals might occasionally make to facilitate discussion during difficult conversations, as well as issues raised by Commencement speaker Salman Rushdie, who as University Distinguished Professor gave a Feb. 15 public lecture at Emory focused on freedom of expression and “The Liberty Instinct.” “Is there such a thing as responsibility in free expression?” Wagner asked, soliciting comments from Faculty Council members. “In other words, are there limits to the practice of free expression that should be imposed from time to time to ensure a better practice of academic freedom and the safety of those who engage in it?”
Month: March 2015
Principles of Faculty Governance
The Council approved a motion for revisions to the faculty handbook that provide a list of principles as guiding values across the university. The principles were developed after extensive deliberation of a task force for faculty governance, led by Associate Professor Justin Remais, and conversations of the task force with faculty across the university. These principles develop and reaffirm the set of fundamental principles for faculty governance, said Kristin Wendland, of the Department of Music. John Bugge of the Emeritus College listed the principles: interdependence, inclusiveness, transparency, communication, accountability, being democratic, deliberativeness, consistency, collegiality, fairness, recognition, and plurality.
Faculty Governance in Unit Assessment
Jason Hockenberry, associate professor in the Rollins School of Public Health, gave an update on his committee’s work thus far on proposals to create a “culture of assessment” in response to the U.S. Department of Education and Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) feedback from Emory’s recent successful conclusion to the reaccreditation process by SACS. The goal, Hockenberry said, is to move assessment from a box-checking report to strategic planning and setting aspirational goals. “The Department of Education is looking for meaningful assessment — not designing a syllabus or tests, but can you say what Emory students look like one, two, three years out when they’ve gone through a given program? They’re interested not so much in what students learn entering and exiting the program but what happens after, what they’ve done with it,” he said. Hockenberry’s committee is looking for more faculty members to join, particularly those with program assessment expertise. The committee will make recommendations to the provost’s office on creating the culture of assessment.