The University Senate Executive Committee forwarded a campus civility report yesterday to a university official to evaluate its fairness.
Carlo Colella, the vice president for administration and finance, has been tasked with considering recommendations made by the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee to further promote principles of workplace civility and reporting back to the SEC with any changes or actions taken related to the proposal.
Early last year, the SEC charged the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee to conduct a broad review about how issues of workplace civility are handled on the campus. During the review, the board concluded that it is important to raise awareness of the Principles of Ethical and Responsible Conduct, but it did not find a systemic culture of workplace disrespect on the campus.
PERC is a set of guidelines that “articulate the basic expectations that should guide each of us in our work at the university,” according to the Office of the Vice President for Administration & Finance’s website. Although PERC is not a university policy, the principles are embedded in several university policies and practices.
The committee found the first principle of PERC, “respect for others,” to be of the utmost importance when it comes to informing the campus community about workplace civility.
Because PERC is not university policy, the SEC decided not to put the proposal to a vote but instead forward it to Colella and make it an informational item at the senate’s next meeting Dec. 11.
“The decision to make the report an informational item on the agenda for the senate meeting was correct,” said Terry Owen, chairman of the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee. “The important thing is that the report will be mentioned at the meeting and be widely available, which will help create a culture of respect on campus.”
The Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee found that the word “civility” is difficult to broadly define. There is no campuswide civility statement because that kind of language could restrict peoples’ free speech, Owen said.
“Civility has a lot of different interpretations for several people. It’s a loaded word,” Owen said. “This is a complex topic, but having respect for others should be a guiding principle in the work that we do every day.”
Staff Ombuds Officer Cynthia Tucker, who was not involved in the committee’s review of the proposal, said she interprets incivility as lack of courteous or respectful behavior toward others.
“Conflicts related to incivility have an element of treating another person with disregard or disrespect, and sometimes power dynamics are involved,” she said.
Tucker said she is a neutral, confidential source who helps uncover underlying issues of civility involving staff members. She said it is difficult to quantify the number of incivility issues because people come to her with various conflicts, including those that do not involve civility disputes.
Tom Ruggieri, coordinator of the faculty and staff assistance program at the University Health Center, said issues of workplace civility are usually one of the top issues brought forth to faculty and staff assistance programs nationally.
“I don’t think it’s necessarily an indication we have this uncivil workplace,” he said. “Our lifestyle and work stresses, and trying to manage our work lives and balance with our home lives, is a very difficult thing to do.”
At the next senate meeting, chairman Donald Webster will present the committee’s report in an effort to spread information on workplace civility and encourage open discussion within the campus community.
Ruggieri said it is valuable to have that discussion but there will always be cases of incivility within a very large workforce.
“It’s not a bad idea to bring it to the fore font and talk about civility. It’s great to have that conversation,” Ruggieri said. “However, will it decrease the amount of incivility we have in the workplace? I’m not holding my breath.”
