The Task Force on Dissent, Protest and Community will form three new subcommittees in an effort to better address issues of open expression on campus, according to a Jan. 18 University press release. The focus of the subcommittees will be on education, policy and administration.
University President James W. Wagner created the task force of students, faculty and staff members after student arrests during an April 2011 protest against Emory's food service provider Sodexo.
The members will seek to address and make recommendations to the University administrators by April of this year.
The subcommittees were formed to achieve the goals of the task force more efficiently, Committee Co-Chair, Senior Vice President and Dean of Campus Life Ajay Nair wrote in an email to the Wheel.
Ed Lee, chair of the education subcommittee and the director of debate for the Barkley Forum, said his committee strives to get community input on their issues of concern.
"We want to discover what are the ways in which we can make sure there is a diverse and balanced set of people who are participating in the conversation at large in restructuring this particular set of policies," Lee said.
Lee explained how he hopes to use campus media outlets such as The Emory Wheel, WMRE and Emory TV to engage the community in issues of concern.
The second subcommittee deals with issues of policy and is chaired by Matt Garret, the assistant dean for campus life and the director of the Office of Student Leadership and Service.
"The [policy subcommittee] has come together to try to bring a set of lofty ideals to a more concrete set of initiatives and agenda," Lee explained.
Lee said one of the many tasks of this subcommittee has been to rewrite Emory's policy on University response to students protesting on campus.
The third subcommittee – chaired by Eric Hoffman, assistant dean and director of Student Conduct – seeks to address administration concerns and explore Emory's conduct process as well as the responsibilities students take when utilizing free speech on campus, according to Lee.
All the committees will blend together eventually, explained Hoffman.
He added that the policy subcommittee will focus on the rights and responsibilities members of the community have, the administration subcommittee will seek to implement those rights and responsibilities as policy, and the education subcommittee strives to keep the campus informed.
Hoffman cited recent examples of campus dissent such as the Sodexo debate, the Chick-fil-A issue and the most recent conflict regarding "The Dooley Show" as reasons to encourage and foster informed and conscientious discussion and debate on campus.
"The overall committee is going to make a series of recommendations to the University Senate [in April]," said Hoffman. "Those recommendations have not been formulated yet; that is why we will continue to meet and develop policy, procedures and education strategies that are apart of those recommendations to be implemented."
– By Dustin Slade
dustin.slade@emory.edu
