Last Friday, faculty convened for the second time this year to discuss updates to the Committee on Governance and Faculty Affairs (GFA), ethical standards of research procedures, healthcare benefits, tenure review and faculty lines, and grants funded by the Hastings Initiative for AI and Humanity.

GFA Chair and Professor of English Aaron Kitch explained how the committee hopes to reshape faculty meetings to make them as productive and meaningful as possible, especially by streamlining procedures and the meeting format.

“We’re especially interested in empowering faculty and attending to the pressing needs of faculty in this difficult time of higher education,” Kitch said in an interview with the Orient.

In last month’s faculty meeting, Director of Sponsored Research Cara Martin-Tetreault introduced a project updating the College’s ethical conduct of research policy. The federal Office of Research Integrity requires all institutions receiving federal research funding to have an ethical research misconduct policy, and the College is updating its policy to align with changes from the Office of Research Integrity. Faculty will vote on this new policy at the next meeting next month.

“[The policy change makes it] very clear for whoever is involved, whether it’s a student, faculty member or staff member, what the process is and what your rights and responsibilities are. There’s also a significant amount of information around protecting the confidentiality of those that are involved in the proceeding,” Martin-Tetreault said in an interview with the Orient.

Senior Vice President for Finance and Administration and Treasurer Matt Orlando addressed faculty concerns regarding health benefits and a recent audit on the College’s health insurance provider Cigna. After faculty reported difficulty with processing and abnormal denial of claims, the College audited Cigna to check for errors in coverage. The audit did not find any major gaps, but faculty expressed lingering concerns about their healthcare benefits.

Professor of Digital and Computational Studies Eric Chown, who is also faculty director of the Hastings Initiative, provided an update regarding the upcoming procedures for applying for faculty research grants and faculty lines under the initiative. The Hastings Initiative will fund ten new faculty lines across multiple departments, with hiring for these lines taking place over the next two years.

Lastly, Professor of Latin and Greek Barbara Weiden Boyd presented on behalf of the Working Group on the Tenure Review and Tenure Appeals Procedures. Boyd offered preliminary suggestions for the clarification of current procedures; however, the working group will not be making any changes to policy regarding tenure review.

Boyd announced that the committee will be hosting two listening sessions in October, one for tenured faculty and the other for untenured faculty. The listening sessions will focus on discussing the preliminary suggestions and receiving feedback in three main areas: procedural relationships between administrators and the Committee on Appointments, Promotion and Tenure; communications with and by the tenure candidate; and articulating the procedures involved in an appeal. Final recommendations by the committee will be made by the next faculty meeting, which is scheduled for next month.