Professors and administrators raised concerns with the ongoing faculty unionization movement at Friday’s faculty meeting. Other topics included the results of the sexual assault climate survey and campus sustainability initiatives.

Interim University President Lisa Lynch opened Friday’s meeting with a follow-up to the Climate Survey on Sexual Misconduct on campus, whose first wave of results were released on Oct. 8. She stated that the task force for sexual assault response services and prevention had a meeting 10 days ago, and that the University hopes to put up fliers containing locations and contact information for emergency services across campus. “To see in the survey that a quarter of our undergraduates and more than half of our graduate students had no idea of where to turn to should they have been in a situation where either they or a friend had been assaulted, that’s just horrible,” Lynch said, noting that the fliers were just the first step of many in the University’s response to the survey.

Later, Senior Associate Vice President for Student Affairs Sheryl Sousa ’90 and Associate Provost for Academic Affairs Kim Godsoe presented the survey results in a PowerPoint. Godsoe stated that she has been studying the data for months now, adding that “these numbers are hard to look at.” 34.3 percent of combined undergraduates and graduates responded to the survey. The statistics Godsoe and Sousa flagged during the presentation included the number of students who responded that they had been sexually assaulted: 21 males, 186 females and 6 “trans/other” students. Additionally, they noted that of the respondents, 6 males and 49 females reported that they had been raped. “The numbers are high,” Godsoe said, though she added that “they are consistent with other universities.” However, she continued, “Throughout the survey, we saw that trans/other students faced sexual harassment and faced sexual assault at rates far higher than any of our other populations.”

A brief discussion followed the presentation, and Prof. Bernadette Brooten (NEJS) commented that she had received feedback from students who volunteered “what might be hindering them in coming forth [about sexual abuse or misconduct], and the very first thing they talked about was faculty comments to Asian students in class. … Such as “I want to learn all of your names, but I’m not going to learn the Asian names because I can’t remember them, because they all look alike. … We need to be aware of what we say [to] help someone to be part of the community, feel part of the community, or not.”

Mary Fischer, manager of sustainability programs, gave a presentation on the University’s energy consumption. In 2007, she noted, Brandeis pledged “climate neutrality” — having zero net greenhouse gas emissions — by 2050. She also noted that the University spends about 10 million dollars each year on gas and electric costs, which amounts to about 25 percent more energy than other comparable universities consume.

However, Fischer said, the Sustainability Program has already found small successes on campus. The University’s six “Turn it Off Days” over the summer and at the beginning of the year reduced energy consumption on peak energy days by 28 percent. Fischer also commented on the ongoing recycling competition between North and Massell Quads, stating that “this is the first of its kind that’s ever been done.”

“[Massell and North’s] baseline recycling rates were about 12 and 14 percent, respectively, and over the last week they’re up to 34 percent,” she added. “That tells you [that if] you give a little incentive, a little gaming, … we can really make a difference.”

Upcoming sustainability projects include a transportation survey that will be given out next semester, as well as composting bins that will be installed next to each dining hall in a movement to reduce food waste. “I’m very excited to start composting at least 500 pounds a day or more,” Fischer said.

The faculty then shifted to a discussion on the unionization movement. Lynch began by summarizing that non-tenure track faculty filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board to join the Service Employees International Union Local 509 on Nov. 4. According to Lynch, the non-tenure track faculty who filed the petition proposed a bargaining unit that would include primarily part-time faculty members. “We are working with the SEIU to clarify who all is being included in the bargaining unit,” she added. “We will be presenting names of individuals that then are in that proposed bargaining unit that goes to the Board.”

Prof. Sarah Mead (MUS), speaking on the behalf of both herself and Neal Hampton, conductor of the Brandeis-Wellesley Orchestra, raised several questions during the discussion. She noted that many of her colleagues were unaware that individuals in similar positions — especially those who teach the arts — are working in a sub-full time capacity. “We have been, for many years, your equals and your colleagues in … all the major committees here in the University. We find ourselves, because we are less than full time, although we are professors of the practice … in the position of having been separated out from the rest of our colleagues in this proposed bargaining unit,” she said.

She added: “Will we find ourselves outside, shut out of faculty governance? Will we find ourselves having to go elsewhere for grievances than where the rest of our colleagues go?”

Lynch responded that there will be “different tradeoffs” in respect to the terms of the agreement, adding that the “collective bargaining agreement itself needs to be ratified by all of those who are covered by [it]. I cannot present any guarantees on that.”

One faculty member asked how the University would differentiate between “long-term, part-time faculty versus adjunct,” to which Lynch responded that the still-ongoing process for University administrators is “defining which group is which.”

Prof. Sabine von Mering (GRALL) discussed the limitations created by the bargaining unit, stating: “it is so strange that in this Capitalist country we can’t determine our own working conditions.” Lynch clarified that any individual that would become part of the bargaining unit would be subject to its terms of working conditions, as opposed to the terms stated in the Faculty Handbook, which currently serves that purpose.

Other faculty members argued that while they supported the unionization efforts, they did not want to be “conscripted.” Another professor also noted that there is not much distinction between contract and non-contract faculty amongst the faculty itself, stating: “We respect contributions of those who want to teach but not focus on research. People don’t even know who’s contracted because there is so much acceptance.”