Disclaimer Petition

PETITION TO HAVE THE ACADEMIC SENATE DEVELOP AND IMPLEMENT A DISCLAIMER POLICY ON BEHALF OF THE FACULTY AT MENDOCINO COLLEGE.
-BY SKIP HUNTER

Since the Academic Senate is the & acted voice of the faculty at Mendocino College and because an individual member of that body has chosen to publicly call our college president "a bureaucratic fascist", and stated that college faculty and staff expectations are so low that we won t speak out when co-workers are targeted for public humiliation, calls the president's staff a "goon squad" and implies the College board of Trustees turns a blind eye to people being beaten up before their eyes, we are asking that the Senate write a disclaimer in the form of a "Letter to the Editor" to the Ukiah Daily Journal stating that Neill Bell does not speak for this body and since this body speaks for the faculty, therefore, does not speak for the faculty of Mendocino College.

We respect this individual's right to "freedom of speech, but we feel a disclaimer is appropriate since he sits on the Senate and it might be misconstrued that he is sneaking for the faculty as a whole.

In addition, we are requesting that the Academic Senate address the decorum issue in order to set a policy that such a disclaimer be used when individual Senate members speak out in public forums or express their personal opinions regarding issues before the Senate. Senate members are elected to represent a constituency and a disclaimer policy would help to avoid the appearance of an individual faculty member using this position as a platform for their own convictions.

As such, a disclaimer policy should not limit the right of an individual Academic Senate member to express opinions, rather it would simply add clarification that the position of a seated Academic Senate member's opinion is not necessarily the opinion of the Academic Senate or the faculty as a whole. A policy of issuing a disclaimer is standard procedure in the arenas of community and public relations and should be generally considered a professional courtesy on behalf of the faculty as a whole.

Copyright MPFA 1999
Permission granted to excerpt or use this article if source is cited