Report from the Chair

Abstract

Tom reported that he announced the Shore-Tobias Award at the November Senate meeting. There were no comments or questions. Safe Zone Patty reported that she had met with Vice Provost Kathy Humphrey re the status of this program. Humphrey has been discussing it with her staff. One concern is that Humphrey believes that she cannot designate only part of her staff as " safe ". Working on how to implement the program in a way that avoids this. Emilia noted that this could be avoided simply by routinely including LGTB issues in faculty and staff training. Patty indicated that this is being done for staff but that more could be done for faculty. Aaron (Rainbow Alliance) reported that he had met with Student affairs and the Counseling Center. They are supportive but don't want to move on the issue until Humphrey's approves it. Aaron suggested that this program is not going to happen unless we start some where and " get our foot in the door ". Patty will arrange a meeting involving Humphrey, Aaron, and committee members (Tom, Mark and Barbara are interested) to discuss how to move forward.