Clough addresses faculty senate

The Academic Senate and General Faculty Assembly held a combined meeting on Tuesday. The faculty saw several presentations and approved minutes of standing committee meetings from both bodies.

The meeting commenced with a speech by Institute President Wayne Clough. Clough introduced the new registrar, Reta Pikowsky, to the members of the faculty.

He then spoke about aid efforts for Tulane University students that evacuated from New Orleans, saying he was proud of the job students, faculty and staff have done over the past weeks. "[Student Center Director] Rich Steele took that on as a cause along with our student affairs groups. We invited them here, and they came," he said.

"Everyone worked very hard with [the Tulane students].each one was treated as an individual, they were taken care of," Clough said.

Tech has also worked to open its doors to students from universities in affected areas, such as Tulane University and the University of New Orleans.

According to Clough, 62 undergraduate students who were impacted by the hurricane have been admitted to Tech, and approximately 45 remain enrolled.

"We admitted most of the students under temporary student status. Those students were given non-esident tuition waivers," Clough said. Other students who were originally Georgia residents were admitted as permanent students for HOPE scholarship eligibility.

In addition to the undergraduates, Clough said 14 graduate students have enrolled in classes.

Tech is also assisting authorities in other ways, working to apply its areas of expertise to the recovery efforts. "We've had conversations with Corps of Engineers people, National Academy people," Clough said. "We're continuing to think about these things and work through them."

Clough also spoke about the Red Cross's utilization of the Alexander Memorial Coliseum. He said the Red Cross determined the Coliseum could hold up to 500 people, but only 290 cots were built and the shelter never held more than 106 people on any given night.

"What the Coliseum actually became was.a service distribution facility," Clough said. Most people who came to the stadium did not stay longer than for one night, as they were helped and shifted to a different location. According to Clough, approximately 1,000 people were helped in the week that the Coliseum was open as a shelter.

Clough also briefly spoke about the state of the Institute, mentioning the recent U.S. News & World Report rankings and current enrollment numbers. He said he was extremely pleased with the continuing increases in the number of Hispanic and African-American graduates. He also discussed the career fair, saying approximately 2,000 students attended each day.

After his speech, Clough addressed a question from a faculty member who felt it was unfair that professors were expected to pay a fee to use the Campus Recreation Center.

Clough defended the current policy, saying the current payment scheme is equitable and logical. "Faculty payments are scaled to be below market rate," he said.

He also pointed out that giving faculty complimentary access would be unfair to students.

"Students certainly went the extra mile to be able to build this facility," Clough said. "[They] started paying for this facility before it was ever built."

Clough said professors already have an advantage because paying CRC fees is mandatory for students and optional for faculty. "We decided as a group to build a facility everybody could use," he said. "Everybody has a role to help support the facility."

The assembled faculty also saw presentations on the honors program and export controls before accepting the minutes for a number of standing committee meetings.