Community Council makes policy revision recomendation

Author: Caroline S. Stauffer

On Tuesday afternoon the Community Council passed a resolution 12-5-1 recommending a revision to the College's current recruitment policy.

Student Co-Chair of Community Council J.S. Woodward '06 and Dean of Student Affairs Ann Hanson co-authored the final version of the Council's recommendation to the administration.

The resolution is a version of the faculty resolution passed on Feb. 14 - which removed the clause allowing discriminating employers to hold an open informational meeting instead of signing the nondiscrimination policy - with slightly modified language. The clause was tested for the first time since the implementation of the nondiscrimination policy in early February when Captain David Doucette of the U.S. Marine Corp gave a presentation on the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy toward homosexuality outlined in U.S. Title 10 before getting the go-ahead to recruit on campus.

The recommendation is "in the same spirit" of the recommendation made by the faculty on Feb. 14 but "clarifies the language a bit," according to Woodward.

If adopted by the administration, the updated recruitment policy would prohibit the military from recruiting on campus and obtaining resumes from the College's recruitment bank as long as the organization remains unable to sign the College's nondiscrimination policy.

The Solomon Amendment, which denies schools that refuse to allow the military to recruit on their campuses money from the government, was also discussed at the meeting. Some Middlebury College faculty currently receive money from the government, so the need to avoid a legal suit was highlighted.

The Council meeting included a lengthy debate about the need to define the line between freedom of speech and recruiting.

The proposal specifies that discriminating employers will not be able to participate in Middlebury College recruitment programs, but does not block them from speaking on campus.

If the administration adopts the Council's recommendations, the new policy will read: "The College's protocol with regard to all employers who wish to recruit on campus is to ask that they sign a non-discrimination agreement certifying that the opportunities they offer are available to all qualified Middlebury students, in keeping with our policy prohibiting discrimination in admission or access to its educational or extracurricular programs, activities or facilities, on the expression, age, marital status, place of birth, service in the armed forces of the United States, or against qualified individuals with disabilities on the basis of disability."

The Council also discussed the recent proposals to move forward with Arabic and Portuguese language houses, but the proceedings were closed to the press.