By Derek Spellman
dspellman@joplinglobe.com
A proposal recommending that Missouri Southern State University expressly protect gays and lesbians from discrimination in hiring policies is to come before the faculty senate today.
The proposal comes after a member of the university’s Board of Governors used an anti-gay slur during a Feb. 20 board retreat. The board member, David Ansley, apologized for the remark several times and later resigned. On Wednesday, a group of students staged a protest demanding that the university’s nondiscrimination policy include language that would protect openly gay students and faculty members.
Faculty senate President Roger Chelf said last week that the senate proposal would recommend adding protections for sexual orientation in the faculty handbook, specifically in the human resources policies that spell out conditions for hiring, compensation, benefits, termination and other matters.
Chelf said today’s proposal likely would not extend to the university’s anti-harassment policy that was the subject of last week’s protest, although he characterized the proposal as a starting point and noted that faculty senators could amend it during the meeting.
The language in the faculty handbook currently bans discrimination based on “age, gender, color, race, religion, disability, veteran’s status, national origin, ancestry, or any other protected characteristic as established by law.”
Chelf said faculty senates elsewhere have taken up similar issues. He said he thinks Missouri Southern’s senate should take up the issue in light of the events surrounding comments by Ansley.
“I didn’t think the senate should be completely silent on this,” Chelf said.
Chelf said he advised MSSU President Bruce Speck of the faculty senate proposal during a meeting Wednesday. He said the proposal came about independently of the student protest.
Speck said Friday that he was not necessarily opposed to a change in the language, but he reiterated what he said last week amid the protests: Additional language, according to the university’s human resources department, could pose legal issues that would need to be explored first.
“It’s not a personal issue,” he said. “It’s a legal issue.”
Today’s senate meeting also will double as a way to gauge the extent to which relations between the faculty and Speck have improved since November’s faculty vote of no confidence in the president, Chelf said.
Chelf said after the board retreat that the university had made some positive strides toward resolving tensions. The Board of Governors also voiced support for the university’s international mission.
Speck on Friday said he could not speak for the faculty. Still, he said, “I don’t get the sense there is the faculty unrest that there was before.”
Details
The faculty senate is to meet at 3 p.m. today in Room 310 of Billingsly Student Center.
