The Business School Faculty has passed a resolution on rights and responsibilities of members of the academic community virtually identical to the one adopted by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.
Medical School Faculty members are being given copies of the Arts and Sciences resolution and will consider adopting a similar statement.
The Divinity School Faculty is expected to approve creation of a student-faculty "Committee on Rights, Responsibilities, and Discipline," to enforce its resolution-substantially the same as that of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Both resolutions were adopted last June.
John A. Sciler, assistant dean of the Business School, said, "It's become quite clear we're completely unprepared for almost any situation. Our disciplinary rules are anachronistic not only in and of themselves, but because they apply only to students and say nothing about behavior expected of Faculty members."
The Resolution on Rights and Responsibilities of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences defined as "unacceptable" behavior, violence against a member or guest of the University; deliberate interference with academic freedom and freedom of speech; theft or willful destruction of property; forcible interference with the freedom of movement of members and guests of the University; and obstruction of the normal processes and activities essential to the functions of the University community.
Disciplinary Power
The resolution gives disciplinary power to the Committee of Fifteen "or its designated successor," This fall, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences created a nine-member Committee of Rights and Responsibilities to take over the disciplinary functions of the Committee of Fifteen.
The Business School resolution is identical except for deletion of all references to the Committee of Fifteen. Like that of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, it is an interim measure, pending a report by their Committee on Governance-similar in function to the Fainsod Committee-expected later this year.
A Divinity School Faculty committee chaired by Wilfred C. Smith, professor of
World Religions, proposed that the Divinity School "Committee on Rights, Responsibilities, and Discipline" be composed of three Faculty members chosen by lot, and two teaching fellows and two students elected by their peers.
Smith said he expects the new committee to be approved with little trouble at the Divinity School Faculty meeting October 31.
Obligations to Students
At its meeting Thursday, the Business School Faculty also voted to hold a special meeting November 6 to consider three proposals on Faculty members' obligations to their students. The proposals were:
to allow faculty members to cancel classes "on occasions when conscience requires it," provided that "alternate arrangements are made to responsibly fulfill their obligation to the students;"
because of the "climate of events," to create a "representative body," including non-tenured Faculty members, to funnel non-academic resolutions-when they are proposed-onto the Faculty agenda;
"because the School is affected by changes in society, specifically the outlook of American youth and changes in business on a worldwide scale," to set up a special convocation entitled "The Business School in Society in the 1970's."
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