At a marathon two-and-a-half hour meeting on February 27, faculty members discussed research funding and student academic policies and voted to confirm changes to tenure review procedures. A motion from Associate Professor of History Salar Mohandesi calling on President Zaki to rescind the College’s new campus use and expression policy was also postponed to today’s meeting.

In her remarks at the beginning of the meeting, President Safa Zaki was appreciative of faculty feedback on the new expression policies. She also expressed her concern about the February 26 arrest of a Columbia University student by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. Zaki said that the Office of Safety and Security is looking to “update and clarify guidance” surrounding interactions with law enforcement in partnership with the Office of the General Counsel.

Professor of Government and Asian Studies Henry Laurence, who was absent from the meeting, submitted a question asking Zaki if the College plans to rename the George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections and Archives. The query came amid revelations made public in the Department of Justice’s latest release of files related to Jeffrey Epstein indicating that the two men were in contact years after Epstein became a convicted sex offender.

“We are mindful of the victims of Epstein’s crimes,” Zaki said in response. “The College is actively reviewing [the revelations] and will share more information as that review continues.”

Senior Vice President and Dean for Academic Affairs Jennifer Scanlon explained the additional changes made to the demonstration policy that she shared in a campuswide email days before the meeting, saying that the changes marked the end of an “iterative” process. She added that the new policies, both January’s original changes and the updates, include no new enforcement mechanisms.

Several faculty commented on the new campus use and demonstration policy, including Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Danielle Dube, who supports it. She described “alienation” among junior faculty she had spoken with and said that the College’s commitment to academic freedom should be balanced with community care.

“Poster campaigns and anonymous op-eds have caused great harm to [these junior faculty],” Dube said. “I’ve been having a very hard time simply existing on campus over the past two years.”

Later in the meeting, Mohandesi proposed postponing a vote on his previously scheduled motion condemning the new policies and calling on Zaki to rescind them. He said that faculty needed more time to examine the updates to the policies, which he stated “deserve rich and vigorous discussion.” Faculty approved the vote’s postponement.

Both Zaki and Scanlon outlined steps the College is taking to address the reduced availability of federal funding for faculty research. Zaki said she has joined the steering committee of a group composed of peer institutions’ presidents exploring enhanced research partnerships between small colleges and is also working to expand internal research support mechanisms.

Scanlon responded to faculty concerns that funding requests will significantly outpace available resources, particularly as the College looks to grow the size of the faculty. She noted that research funding is competitive and shared that the Faculty Development Committee (FDC) is considering ways to prioritize funding awards. Possibilities included a preference for research expenses over conference travel or considering how successful faculty members have been at receiving funding in the past.

Faculty overwhelmingly approved a pair of motions officially updating tenure review and appeal procedures based on the recommendations of a faculty working group that has met throughout the academic year. The approved recommendations include expanding the Committee on Appointments, Promotion and Tenure (CAPT) from five members to six, allowing tenure candidates to invite a “confidential listener” to meetings with CAPT, offering candidates the option to respond to CAPT or the dean for academic affairs in writing after receiving a tenure review decision and clarifying the timing and nature of involvement from the president or the dean for academic affairs in those processes.

Professor of History Patrick Rael raised concerns that tenure appeals decisions would not be communicated to the tenure committee of the candidate’s department. Working group member and Professor of Government Laura Henry said that tenure decisions are confidential once they go to appeal, and that balancing candidate privacy with informing department committees is “a difficult pickle to legislate across cases.”

The last major item on the meeting’s agenda came from Professor of Earth and Oceanographic Science Collin Roesler, who presented six motions to codify modifications to student academic procedures alongside Registrar Martina Duncan ’97 and Dean of Students Lisa Hardej.

Some proposals clarify when students seeking various exceptions to policy should appeal to the Recording Committee or to their academic advisor. One item codifies end-of-semester due dates, stating that final assignments for a course must be due at its scheduled final exam time rather than the last day of the semester.

Another motion would prevent students from changing their major within two weeks of registration in an effort to prevent students from gaining registration priorities for majors they do not actually wish to pursue. Some faculty questioned the efficacy of this restriction and noted that students may naturally wish to change their majors around the time of registration, since most advisor meetings happen during that time period.

A few faculty members were especially skeptical of the last proposal, which dealt with final grade appeals. Associate Professor of Government Jeffrey Selinger voiced a concern that students would be able to bypass faculty members in appealing a final grade and misrepresent faculty conduct in the process. Professor of History and Associate Dean for Curriculum Dallas Denery sought to assuage Selinger’s concerns, which were shared by several other faculty members. He and Scanlon emphasized that faculty would always be involved by the dean’s office in such cases, and Scanlon added that in some cases, students may have legitimate reasons not to engage faculty in such an appeal.

Faculty members will meet again today in Mills Hall at 2:20 p.m. and are scheduled to vote on Mohandesi’s motion condemning the new campus use, demonstrations and postering policy.