Newspapers / Meredith College Student Newspaper / March 5, 2003, edition 1 / Page 2
Part of Meredith College Student Newspaper / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
2 CAMPUS NEWS Student body narrowly votes to amend College nondiscrimination policy TIFFANY ADAMS Managing Editor During the campus-wide elections held last month, students narrowly voted to include the phrase "sexual orientation" in Meredith's student nondiscrimination policy. The results of the referendum were: Freshman: 62.7 percent Yes 37.3 percent No Soph.: 45.7 percent Yes 54.3 percent No Junior: 52.2 percent Yes 47.8 percent No Senior: 65.3 percent Yes 45.6 percent No Totel: 54.4 percent Yes 45.6 percent No Following the elections, the proposal for amending the current policy was pre sented to the Academic and Budget Continued from Page 1 She estimated that the College receives most of its revenue from tuition. Student Government Association President Lora Tillman, who served as the student representative on the budget committee, noted that these cuts to the faculty and staff will also indirectly affect smdents. "These changes will make it difficuh for many full-time and part-time employees to afford their own insurance, and many part-time employees may have to look into other employment options," Tillman said. "Students should continue to be extremely supportive of their professors, faculty advisers and staff at this time." Many faculty and staff expressed their concerns about the budget at a forum Monday aftemoon held by the members of the budget committee. Faculty, staff and admin istration filled Kresge Auditorium to ask ques tions of members of the Campus Life Committee of the Board of Trustees on Feb. 28. The committee voted, with one negative vote, to endorse the propos al. After this initial vote, the proposal wj^ presented to the entire Board of Trustees the sjuiie after noon. The Board of Trustees passed the propos al, receiving only one vote not in favor of endorsing the proposal. Many students feel that including the phrase in the student nondiscrimination policy is beneficial to the Mereditfi community in many respects because the policy will better represent the College. "SGA believes this is an important step toward diversity and acceptance at budget committee, which includes Hartford, three of the College's vice presi dents, and representatives from the administration, faculty, staff and students. At the forum, Hartford emphasized that the com mittee was faced with a dif ficult situation in formulate ing next year's budget. "Our highest priority was not to let people go," Hartford said. She said the coimnittee "worked the budget to the bone" to be able to avoid cuts beyond the ones that have already been made. She said the only viable options the committee could see other than layoffs or raising tuition were the cuts that made it into the fmal proposal. According to Hartford and Tillman, raising tuition was present ed as a pK)ssible option but rejected because the cost of tuition for next year had already been set and announced to students. Many adjunct faculty and part-time staff attended the meeting and expressed con cerns over the loss of their health and retirement bene- Meredith," Lora Tillman, Student Government Association president, said. "This policy is meant to encompass and protect all students from discrimina tion of any kind while attending Meredith, and the addition of this phrase will ensure that all students are granted such protection." Spectrum President Kathryn Bailey said, "I think that it is important to pass the sexual orientation statement because it is time to put in writing what is ab^ady imderstood: Meredith College wel comes everyone regardless of who they are. Education is supposed to be available to everyone. I think that adding sexual orientation to the anti'discrimination fits. However, Hartford noted that Meredith is cur rently one of the few schools that do provide benefits for part-time employees. Many ftill-time employ ees also expressed concern over the situation of their part-time colleagues. Several praised the contri butions of adjunct faculty to the campus and noted that many of these individ uals have worked at Meredith on a part-time basis for most of their careers and depend heavily on the benefits they have received in the past. "All faculty are generally veiy sad that employees are hurt fmancially," Oatsvall said. "Full-time employees believe that as a caring community we must be concerned about the well being of our part-time col leagues as well as our full time colleagues." However, Oatsvall did note that full-time faculty are also concerned about their own changing situa tion. She said that the pay freeze, combined with the increase in required faculty clause will help show peo ple that Meredith has enough class to rise above all labels and focus on the goal of education." Freshman Jane Langford said, "To put forth in offi cial documentation that Meredith College wel comes women without regard to sexual orientation is to establish an environ ment that not only allows for open education, but also promotes social acceptance, which is a far greater edu cation than one can ever learn in books." Some students were sur prised that the results of the referendum were so close. Juniors Krista Kearny and Christy Kimball said they expected the results to be contributions to insurance, will seem to the faculty like they are taking a pay cut. Also in attendance at the forum was Michelle Rich, the chair of the Board of Trustees. Rich explained that, while the Trustees sympattiize with the condi tions employees will be facing, these cuts were no different than the ones that a harsh economy is requir ing businesses across the coimtry to make. Rich, as well as the other speakers at the forum, emphasized the need to increase enrolhnent in order to pull the College out of this undesirable budget situation. She expressed the Trustees' commitment to fundraising for the College and recruit ing new students. Hartford said the target enrolhnent for next year to help the College meet its fmancial demands is at least 450 freshmen, 110 transfer students, 65 gradu ate students and 75 non-tra- ditional-aged students. She also emphasized the need to improve student reten tion rates and pointed out overwhelmingly in favor of changing the nondiscrimi nation statement. "I am surprised and dis appointed that the vote was so close," Kearney said. "I fully expected an over whelming majority of stu dents to vote yes to add the phrase." However, some members of the community disagree with the addition of this statement. “Because the student body is so closely divided, I’m not sure that the change is really great for the health of the institu tion,” Professor Clyde Frazier said. “1 abstained when the faculty voted on a resolution calling for the change.” several ways.the College is attttnprifig^ this, including building its Web presence and encouraging recruitment of new students among alumnae chapters. While no changes to the approved budget were promised, Hartford did promise that the committee would consider the sugges tions and concerns expressed and would con sult the employees if any new funds were generated. Although the budgetary concerns facing the College next year are very real, members of the budget committee said they are confident that this situation is only temporary. "Meredith is in a transi tion period," Tilbnan said. "I have the utmost faith in Meredith, its students, fac ulty, staff and administra tion to pull together during this time rather than push apart. And when we come out on the other side of this, be it next year or five years from now, Meredith will be that much stronger for standing together."
Meredith College Student Newspaper
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
March 5, 2003, edition 1
2
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75