Dear Members of the Barnard Community,
Over the summer, the senior staff reviewed a number of existing College policies to incorporate your feedback about ways we could improve them and the policy process overall. As mentioned in President Rosenbury’s email to faculty on August 28 and in the 411 and Connections newsletters on September 5 and September 6, a crucial step was to revise the Policy for the Development and Revision Process for Barnard College Administrative Policies to formally include students, faculty, and staff in the development of College-wide policies. The prior iteration of this Policy, which went into effect in 2019, did not provide any formal role for students, faculty, or staff in policymaking. We are pleased to have this expanded process to incorporate the voices of our community.
Policy Development and Revision Process
In this new process, the College will now give notice to the entire Barnard community of any proposed new administrative policies or revisions to existing policies and provide opportunities for open comment. The College will also seek input directly from affected groups (e.g., students, faculty, and/or staff), providing opportunities for those groups to submit written comments and meet with senior staff members to provide feedback. The senior staff will consider all feedback received. We hope this approach will result in policies that better serve our community, and we look forward to working with you toward this goal.
Temporary Policies
If a policy is time-sensitive for critical College operations, this new framework also provides a path for implementing temporary policies, which are effective immediately, but are still subject to a more comprehensive review process within 90 days. If the full policy review process is not initiated within 90 days, the temporary policy will automatically lapse.
Temporary Policy for Safe Campus Demonstrations
A revised Policy on Safe Demonstrations is the first temporary policy issued under this new procedure. This revision reflects input we received from the Barnard community over the course of last spring and summer. We look forward to receiving even more input through the new comprehensive review process, which we will begin immediately.
Although we encourage everyone to read the entire temporary policy, we highlight key changes from the prior policy below:
- The notice time has been reduced from 48 hours to 36 hours, meaning that you now must provide only 36 hours’ notice before a desired demonstration time.
- The hours for demonstrations on Futter Field have been expanded from 2 to 6 p.m. to 12 noon to 6 p.m.
- Silent demonstrations have been explicitly exempted from the registration process and may proceed without prior registration.
As before, the College will approve demonstration requests without consideration of the nature or content of the demonstration or the identity of the requestor(s).
Anyone wishing to provide comments on this policy may submit feedback using this form through October 4, 2024. The College will also work with the Faculty Governance and Procedures Committee, the Barnard Staff Advisory Council, and the Student Government Association to obtain additional feedback about the demonstration policy.
We look forward to working with you to develop and implement policies that best serve the Barnard community. If you desire further clarification about any policies or rules, please email policies@barnard.edu.
Sincerely,
Ciaran Escoffery
Vice President and Secretary to the Board of Trustees
Leslie Grinage
Vice President for Campus Life and Student Experience and Dean of the College
Sandra Kim
Interim Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Serena Longley
Vice President and General Counsel
Kelli A. Murray
Executive Vice President for Strategy and Chief Administrative Officer