Political candidacy OK'd despite Hill's argument
Honors Program Director James Hill had hoped the Board of Trustees would table the political candidacy of employees policy discussion until more faculty had submitted their input.
"Radical changes were made in the way the faculty are treated," Hill said after the policy was unanimously approved at Thursdays meeting.
According to the new policy, any Central Michigan University employee running for any part-time, full-time, paid or unpaid federal, state, county or local office is required to present a statement to his or her supervisor and applicable vice president or provost.
In addition, any employee that is elected or appointed to office must present a statement from his or her supervisor to the CMU personnel office within 20 work days after notification, stating appropriate arrangements have been made.
Robert Martin, associate vice provost of Faculty Personnel Services, said the policy was discussed on more than one occasion during bargaining negotiations with the Faculty Association.
However, Hill contends faculty were left in the dark.
"The policy you have before you today, I think, fails on the commitment to public service and fails on the commitment to shared governance," he said to Trustees during public comment at the meeting.
FA President and associate professor of finance and law Nancy White said the policy was presented to the bargaining team, and that the team had the power to negotiate.
"It wasn't presented to the faculty, not every single person saw it," she said.
White said these types of policies aren't normally approved by faculty.
"Usually, policies aren't approved by the faculty or the faculty administration, but parts of policies may need to be bargained," she said.
Hill presented a graph to the board that compared the proposed policy to policies in place at Western Michigan University's, University of Michigan, Wayne State University, Michigan State University, and CMU's existing policy.
According to his graph, CMU's proposed policy did not correlate with any of those policies.
"If it is adopted, it will be among the most restrictive political activities policies among the four state institutions in Michigan," he said.
He asked the board to table the resolution until the next meeting to give an opportunity to the faculty to have input.
University President Michael Rao said from his standpoint, Topinabee senior Dennis Lennox II's efforts to eliminate Griffin Endowed Chair Gary Peters did not influence this policy.
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