Lehigh’s Faculty Senate met on Friday to vote on faculty rules and procedures and discuss the working draft of Lehigh’s preamble in their ratification of the Chicago Principles.
Throughout the meeting, the senators discussed free speech principles and the future implications of the university’s ratification of the Principles’ policy.
The Chicago Principles
The Senate welcomed the Lehigh Preamble Working Group, which was started by President Joseph Helble and created by Brett Ludwig, the vice president for communications and public affairs, to ratify the Chicago Principles, a model free speech policy created by the University of Chicago that over 100 universities have since ratified and adopted.
The working group said they view the Chicago Principles as “the gold standard of free speech affirmation in higher education,” and reference the statement heavily in the writing of the preamble for the ratification of the document.
The Chicago Principles protect the general principle of freedom of expression, but state a university may restrict expressions that violate the law, defame an individual, constitute threats or harassments, or are directly incompatible with the university’s functions.
According to the Working Group’s draft of the preamble, the Chicago statement will be used “as a guidepost for future decisions regarding freedom of expression within the university, and that it will help Lehigh, its leadership and governing body ensure that open and robust dialog continues within the limitations necessary to sustain long term viability of the institution.”
Ludwig said he believes ratifying the Chicago Principles will set necessary boundaries while still endorsing the faculty’s rights to free speech.
In the meeting, senators also expressed their concerns over which document, the Faculty Rules and Procedures or the preamble, takes precedence in case of a future conflict between the two. Senators expressed the need for an established hierarchy between the two regulations.
Provost Nathan Urban said the goal of the preamble is to have “moral force,” similar to the moral force of the Lehigh mission statement. He said if a policy needs to be changed, compliance with the Rules and Procedures will take precedence.
Urban said Lehigh’s preamble is not a policy that can be broken, like how one can’t violate the Lehigh mission statement through a single act.
Several senators said they believed the preamble should state that designation clearly.
The Preamble Working Group will present to the Graduate Student Senate, the Employee Relations Advisory Committee, Staff Government and the Student Senate on the working draft this week.
Updates to Faculty Rules and Procedures
The Senate also addressed Faculty Rules and Procedures, including whether final projects and presentations are allowed to be assigned during examination periods. The current rule states that no examination totaling more than 5% of a final grade should be given during the last five full class days.
Jenna Lay, the Faculty Senate vice chair, said not all courses have final exams, as some give final papers, presentations or projects, which was not previously addressed in the procedures. The new revision clarified that other forms of final examinations are allowed.
Lay said further nuance was needed in the procedures and points to an overarching problem of the standing version of the rules not aligning with current pedagogy practices and new ways of teaching.
University Registrar Micheal Dills-Allen said students and the Provost’s office have previously complained about professors giving assignments during the final week of classes, so this revision helps to clarify what is and isn’t allowed.
The proposed new addition would include that papers, presentations and other graded assignments can be given out during the last five full class days, but economics professor Frank Gunter argued faculty may take advantage of additional days to give out assignments.
“It seems to me there’s a danger if we allow essays and presentations in the last week of the semester, a significant number of faculty take advantage of that,” Gunter said.
He said he was also concerned with the Middle States Commission on Higher Education’s reaction to this change in the text. The Commission oversees the educational quality of over 500 universities it has accredited, which includes Lehigh.
Gunter said Lehigh has verified with the commission that it operates under a 15 week program with 14 weeks of instruction and one week of evaluation.
Gunter then said that if the university wants to allow exams and projects in the final week, they must communicate with the Middle States Commission.
The Lehigh Faculty Senate will meet again on Oct. 3. More information can be found on the Faculty Senate website.
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