The Georgetown University Faculty Senate held a main campus caucus meeting Monday afternoon in the Leavey Center to discuss its stance regarding faculty rights to external activities, which include professional or academic consultations outside of the university.

The meeting centered on a proposal before the senate that was first introduced in December 2006 and later revised in May 2006. The proposal concerns giving faculty more freedom in their external activities and greater flexibility to become involved in educational programs offered by the university.

The 12 senators and a guest from the Office of the Provost briefly reviewed minutes from a meeting with the provost last week before discussing the content of the proposal. Senate President Wayne Davis then addressed the group.

Senators expressed their disapproval of current policies that require approval from the Office of the Provost for faculty members to work in other programs on campus at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Approval is also required for faculty members to take part in external activities.

The senate also discussed the allocation and division of salaries for external programs. Last year, 59 adjunct professors were given over $50,000 in supplementary wages, while others were given significantly less.

Senators articulated the need for better regulation and better methods of monitoring faculty who do not fulfill the necessary requirements for balancing their teaching, research and external activities laid out in the Faculty Handbook. Others advocated the need to analyze the university’s accounting methods to ensure that no wasted money is overlooked.

Senators also raised the possibility of increasing the number of faculty and staff in each department in order to accommodate a need for flexibility that would accompany increased external academic activities.

Debate also addressed the development of the proposal into policy, rather than guidelines, for the university administration.

The caucus meeting replaced the scheduled full senate assembly, which was canceled recently to give faculty senators the opportunity to provide feedback on recent developments before formalizing an agenda.

Professor Anthony Arend, the senate vice president for main campus and caucus chair, presided over the meeting, which lasted an hour and a half. He commended the range of responses from the senators, which he said was the main purpose of yesterday’s meeting.

“[We need] faculty input to feed back to the provost,” said Wayne, who is at the forefront of negotiations with the Office of the Provost.

“[It was] a useful discussion on supplemental consultation policy,” said Wayne, reflecting on the atmosphere of general agreement as the meeting came to a close.”