Academic Governance hopes to draft joint document on campus civility

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Members of MSU’s Academic Governance system hope to restore civility to MSU with a joint faculty and student statement on the topic, but officials said the campus community will have to wait until at least next semester for a finalized document.

The Executive Committee of Academic Council, or ECAC, referred the statement’s development to two standing Academic Governance committees last year, according to minutes from ECAC’s meeting on Oct. 7, 2008. The University Committee on Student Affairs, or UCSA, finished its draft on civility last year and forwarded it to the University Committee on Faculty Affairs, or UCFA, for consideration.

UCFA Chairwoman Deborah Moriarty said the goal is to produce a joint statement on campus civility endorsed by both committees. The statement appears as an agenda item for today’s ECAC meeting, but Moriarty said it will not continue to move through the governance process today.

“It’s still in the (UCFA) Personnel Policy Subcommittee,” Moriarty said. “(The committee) is looking at one the students already wrote.”

ASMSU Student Assembly Chairperson Kyle Dysarz said it is important for MSU to adopt an all-encompassing statement on civility rather than relying on MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon’s statement on diversity and inclusion, which briefly mentions the importance of displaying civility, or being polite and courteous, toward
others.

“When you have these types of statements, it makes it very clear what we, as a community, believe in,” Dysarz said. “It’s important we put in words what we believe in and our commitment to civility within the university
community.”

The UCFA Personnel Policy Subcommittee is scheduled to meet today before the ECAC meeting, which is scheduled for 3:15 p.m. in Room 401 of the Administration
Building.

Jason Merrill, UCFA Personnel Policy Subcommittee chairman, said although he missed the subcommittee’s last meeting, he expects the group to finish the document today.

“We have another meeting (today), at which I think I will get caught up on everything and we’ll finish it,” Merrill said.

A need for a joint civility statement is not a new discussion topic for Academic Governance, Secretary for Academic Governance Jacqueline
Wright said.

“There was a feeling we should have a joint student-faculty statement on civility when some of the hate crime activity had started, I believe,” Wright said. “That was brought to ECAC and it was agreed on that we should have a statement on civility jointly drafted by faculty and students.”

UCFA committee members started the civility statement process this fall by determining the goal of the document, Merrill said.

“That was really what we started with: What exactly is this and why are we writing it?” Merrill said. “We felt that was really important because if we don’t know exactly what the goal is and where is this going, then we can’t really write an effective document. It’s a fairly abstract thing.”

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