FAC moves two bills to faculty senate

The Faculty Affairs Committee voted Tuesday to move two bills to the Faculty Senate. The two bills amended policies on ombudspersons and intellectual property.

The first bill, “Faculty Trainer for Ombudspersons,” adds a section allowing the Faculty Executive Committee to “confirm or appoint if necessary, a tenured faculty member” to train incoming ombudspersons.

“I wrote this bill because we don’t have a trainer for ombudspersons,” said Sheryll Lidzy, FAC chair and associate professor of communication and theater. “The bill was written in 2013…got pulled out in 2015, and now I am putting it back in.”

The bill includes training from Human Resources about the Grievance Policy, which is what highlights procedures for when faculty and staff have a complaint surrounding university policy, decisions, or perhaps another faculty member, according to the university policy manual.

The bill also states that “current or previous” ombudspersons are preferred to serve as the trainer and that the trainer will serve a term of three years.

The second bill, titled “Update of Intellectual Property Policy” amends current policy to add that “mediated courseware…does not include the course materials regardless of delivery methodology.”

“We’re trying to distinguish between the delivery or management system and the actual course materials,” said George Durler, professor of accounting.

Emporia State has “limited ownership or control rights” for self-initiated courseware, according to current intellectual property policy.

The bill adds that any course materials given to students would be owned by the professor.

The delivery system, if the instructor is given direction to use the courseware from ESU, will still be partially owned by the university. 

The bill also adds some clarification to what a “specific appointment” is, as well as adding that an appointment to teach a course through “internal grant” will not be considered under the “special appointment” exemption.

The next FAC meeting is 3:30 p.m. Nov. 27 in the Miller Room.