Minutes of Faculty Welfare Committee, Meeting for Thursday, October 14, 2010, 3:30 p.m.

 

Regular, voting members present (3): Katrina DuBose, chair, Andrada Ivanescu, and Ken Ferguson, acting secretary.

 

Regular, voting members absent (4): John Reisch, Michael Hartley, Christine Avenarius, and Louis Warren

 

Ex-officio, voting members present (3): Linda Ingalls (Representative of VC for Academic and Student Affairs), Jonathan Dembo (Representative of the Chair of the Faculty), and Charles Boklage (Representative of the Faculty Senate).

 

Others present: John Toller, Lori Lee

 

Because a quorum, or majority of the regular, voting members, was noted as not present, there were no votes called.  Approval of the minutes from the last meeting was postponed for an e-mail vote, where a quorum could be constituted.

 

There was a discussion of Attachment 3 from the Faculty Welfare Committee prepared documents, containing the suggested text submitted by the Office of Equity, Diversity, and Community Relations to be included in the Faculty Manual.  After discussion of the three-part text, it was suggested that only the following passage need be included in the Manual, edited only to delete references to other passages not also to be included:

 

“VI. Equal Employment Opportunity/Affirmative Action Policy and University Commitment to Diversity.

East Carolina University celebrates diversity among the faculty, staff, and students, and is committed to fostering respect for human difference and equal opportunities for all, regardless of membership in a University protected class.  To that end, the Office of Equity, Diversity, and Community Relations develops and implements equal opportunity policies and diversity programs.  Information about the Office of Equity, Diversity, and Community Relations programs and policies, the University’s protected classes and related nondiscrimination policies and procedures may be found by visiting the Office Web site at www.ecu.edu/edc.”

 

In the discussion, it was suggested that the direction in the retained passage to the official OEO Web site would be adequate to resolve any faculty questions about the groups covered by the policy (such as faculty, students, applicants, and visitors) or the current list of classes within such groups to be afforded special protection under the policy.

 

No vote was taken on the suggestion in regard to Attachment 3. A vote was going to be completed via e-mail for this item.

 

There was a discussion of Attachment 2 from the Faculty Welfare Committee prepared documents, the section of the Faculty Manual dealing with the Privileges for Retired Faculty (Part VI, General Personnel Policies, I. Employment Policies, I. Retirement), also to be subject to possible revision.

 

In regard to the E-mail privileges, John Toller stated that to retain an e-mail account, it is no longer necessary for retired faculty to log in annually.  It was suggested that this item be revised to read:

 

4. E-mail

 

Retired faculty may keep their e-mail accounts.

 

In the discussion of parking privileges for retired faculty, it was suggested that Section 2. Parking Permits be revised to state that the retired faculty “may obtain a parking permit valid in Faculty B Zones,” instead of the weaker condition of “may request,” the latter implying that their requests may possibly be denied.  It was also requested that Faculty Manual clarify whether the B Parking will be free to retired faculty, or made available at their cost.

 

In the discussion of the ECU 1 Card, it was suggested that Faculty Manual make it clear that retired faculty may obtain an ECU 1 Card, although they must apply for a new card upon retirement (reported by Linda Ingalls).

 

There was also a discussion as to why certain privileges for retired faculty had been removed from the Faculty Manual, including the rights to purchase tickets to university events such as athletic contests and entertainment and the right to tuition waivers for individual courses.  Reasons for these omissions were cited, for example, that the ticket policy is not under the control of the faculty.

 

No votes were taken on any suggestions in regard to privileges of retired faculty.

 

John Toller was going to continue to revise this section and look into other recourcces that retired faculty can access.

 

Further sections of the Faculty Manual to be considered for revision were distributed to members present, who agreed to examine these sections in preparation for the discussion at the next regular meeting.

 

The meeting was adjourned at 5:10 p.m. without objection from the members present.