{"id":324269,"date":"2026-11-09T17:04:26","date_gmt":"2026-11-09T17:04:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/324269\/"},"modified":"2026-11-09T17:04:26","modified_gmt":"2026-11-09T17:04:26","slug":"faculty-senate-discusses-title-ix-committees-policy-revisions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/324269\/","title":{"rendered":"Faculty Senate discusses Title IX, committees, policy revisions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lehigh\u2019s policy on protected characteristics related to discrimination and Title IX will remain the same regardless of federal rollbacks, said Jessica White, Lehigh\u2019s new<\/a> equal opportunity compliance and Title IX coordinator, during Friday\u2019s Faculty Senate meeting.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Recent federal changes<\/a> removed gender identity and sexual orientation from Title IX regulations, but White said Lehigh\u2019s policy won\u2019t change.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the meeting White said she and the new case coordinator Monica Clear have been conducting a \u201clistening tour\u201d across Lehigh to hear the needs of campus and gather feedback. She said the Senate is another stop on their tour.<\/p>\n

The Senate also heard from the Intellectual Property Review Board about potential revisions to Lehigh\u2019s Intellectual Property Policy, passed rules and procedural language on the new Arts and Libraries committee and discussed faculty representation on an Education Innovation and Academic Technology committee during the meeting.<\/p>\n

Faculty feedback on Title IX and Equal Opportunity Compliance Office<\/p>\n

Faculty Senate Chair Jenna Lay said the Cornell 7 case<\/a>, a rape case at Lafayette College<\/a>, the Sigma Phi Delta recruitment text<\/a> and White\u2019s arrival<\/a> to Lehigh this summer as reasons for White joining the meeting.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Before White started at Lehigh this summer, the position wasn\u2019t filled<\/a> for six months.<\/p>\n

White told the Senate the Equal Opportunity Compliance and Title IX Office<\/a> is responsible for any form of discrimination and harassment, including Title IX, Title XI, Title XII and 504.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As she and Clear settle into their roles at Lehigh, White said they\u2019re making sure reporting processes are working as they\u2019re supposed to across campus.<\/p>\n

White also said she\u2019s hoping to see an increase in reports as people feel more comfortable to report, and understand the reporting and investigation process more clearly.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe goal is to make sure our office is aware that (cases are) happening so we can respond, so we can provide the resources,\u201d White said. \u201cWe need to be building trust and we need to be building awareness of how to report to our office.\u201d<\/p>\n

White said she and Clear will be consulting focus groups and potentially an advisory council to make sure they\u2019re hearing from constituents across campus. She also said the office will be releasing an annual report in January 2027 detailing data they\u2019ve collected and seeing where improvements can be made.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Opening up the conversation to the Senate on feedback they had for the EOCC, White heard from Senator Rosi Reed, professor of physics, who spoke about her negative experience with the prior Title IX office.<\/p>\n

Reed said prior reports she filed with the Title IX office weren\u2019t addressed in a timely manner, and other faculty she talked to had similar experiences.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Christopher Liang, professor of counseling psychology at Lehigh, said as someone who had experience with the previous Title IX office, he\u2019s appreciated the changes he\u2019s seen so far, but wasn\u2019t sure others on campus know about them.<\/p>\n

White said the annual report in January will address changes and ongoing development, including data from the office\u2019s database where they track the timing of reports and what happens during the cases.<\/p>\n

She said communication with groups across campus is extremely important in her role. She also said she recently read a report filed relating to a physical disability, and knowing she wasn\u2019t an expert, she reached out to Lehigh Facilities, Disability Support Services and HR.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She said making sure students are respected and included throughout the whole process, even if they end up transferring schools, is extremely important.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want students to feel cared for during the process,\u201d White said.<\/p>\n

Intellectual Property Policy revisions<\/p>\n

Dominic Packer and Rick Smith from the Intellectual Property Review Board asked for faculty questions and feedback on their proposal for revisions to Lehigh\u2019s Intellectual Property Policy <\/a>during the meeting.<\/p>\n

Packer said the policy hasn\u2019t been revised since 2001, and many of the proposed changes are to modernize the policy so it\u2019s easier to understand and reflects Lehigh\u2019s current practices.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The policy addresses ownership of intellectual property as it relates to university activities, generally referring to inventions created by university members.<\/p>\n

Of the eight changes the review board is proposing, Packer said six clarify Lehigh\u2019s existing intellectual property practices, while the remaining two directly affect researchers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The first change makes it clear there must be disclosure of an invention to Lehigh before there\u2019s a public disclosure.<\/p>\n

Packer said this has always been necessary under the Bayh-Dole<\/a> law for federally funded inventions, and Lehigh\u2019s Office of Technology Transfer can expedite review when necessary, including within 24 hours.<\/p>\n

He said this review is necessary so the university can put proper protections in place for federally funded inventions.<\/p>\n

The second change regards Lehigh declining patent protections. In the 2001 policy, if Lehigh declines a patent protection, ownership \u201cshall be reassigned to the creator upon request.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The review board is proposing to change the language to \u201cmay be reassigned,\u201d because Packer said the government automatically takes the title to a federally funded invention if Lehigh declines to protect the patent.<\/p>\n

Packer said the review board may add a line about AI to the policy, but because current U.S. patent law currently addresses AI as a tool for invention<\/a> that can\u2019t be named solely as an inventor, it\u2019s not a top priority of the board.<\/p>\n

Several senators raised concerns over what \u201cteaching materials\u201d specifically referred to in the Intellectual Property Policy and questioned what rights the university has over those materials.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Senator Mike Spear, professor in the computer science and engineering department at Lehigh, brought up a hypothetical example of the university taking his lecture materials and making them an online AI course.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Packer said this outcome is extremely unlikely, but he will raise the issue of what the university is allowed to do with teaching materials to the Office of the General Counsel.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIn reality the odds of Lehigh choosing that are near zero, but you could imagine it happening, not here but at other places,\u201d Packer said.<\/p>\n

He said the review board will also clarify what \u201cteaching materials\u201d specifically refers to in the policy.<\/p>\n

Lay said Packer will take the Senate\u2019s feedback and come back with changes, and the review board will also be opening up feedback from the university community in three weeks.<\/p>\n

New committees\u00a0<\/p>\n

Following October\u2019s Faculty Senate<\/a> meeting where a second reading of the Arts and Libraries Faculty Committee was discussed, the Senate passed a third reading at Tuesday\u2019s meeting, approving the committee.<\/p>\n

Lay told The Brown and White after the meeting the Senate had to restructure their corresponding committee after Lehigh separated the Library and Technology Services<\/a> into Arts and Libraries and Information Technology Services this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur committee was in parallel with the university unit structure, so we are trying to make sure we address all the elements of the previous committee,\u201d Lay said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In October, Senators expressed concern that language removed from the Arts and Libraries committee rules and procedures would\u2019ve taken faculty voices out of conversations about academic technologies.<\/p>\n

In response, Lay said a rules and procedures level committee called Educational Innovation and Academic Technology will be created to address information technology and academic technology.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Senator Al Bodzin, professor in the College of Education, brought up his concern that faculty from smaller colleges are becoming overburdened with the number of committees they\u2019re expected, or would want to have representation on.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lay said this is part of the reason the Senate has a working group analyzing the committee structure at large.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rules and procedural language updates<\/p>\n

Lay said following an administrative error<\/a> addressed in October\u2019s meeting regarding the Senate\u2019s rules and procedures, they will be working to make R&P more transparent on the website and include version history in the Google Docs they\u2019re included on.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She told the Senate every time the board improves rules and procedures, they\u2019ll make a new version on the Google Doc available for anyone to see. Since the Senate was created eight years ago, Lay said there\u2019s ambiguity in rules and procedures that\u2019s confusing, including faculty senate membership, processes when faculty need extended leave and what counts as a term.<\/p>\n

Since some of the ambiguities impact current Senate leadership, Lay said former Senate Chair Peter Zeitler, professor of earth and environmental sciences, will be working on clarifying changes to rules and procedures to make it more clear.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Zeitler said the parts he plans on updating are the size and composition of the Senate, the terms of senators and senator leadership, and how Senate meeting procedures are described.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was very clear in someone\u2019s mind how that was to be done, but it wasn\u2019t written in one concise way,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m working on removing ambiguity so it\u2019s completely clear \u2014 this is the size of the Senate, this is what happens if you resign.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response to last meeting\u2019s dramatic vote<\/a> regarding the Explore Lehigh program where Lay had to use two votes, one as Chair and one as Senator, Lay said she and other members on the executive committee reviewed Robert\u2019s Rules<\/a> and Senate rules and procedures.<\/p>\n

Lay said they discovered the rule about the chair using two votes only applied to executive committee votes, and there wasn\u2019t a rule around general votes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since R&P doesn\u2019t address general votes, Lay said in the future the Senate will abide by Robert\u2019s Rules, which grant the chair one vote in the case of a tie.<\/p>\n

Additionally, Lay said only senators present in person or on Zoom for a meeting are allowed to vote. Last month, senators who weren\u2019t present for the meeting still voted after receiving an email with the voting link. Lay said the votes will now only be sent electronically to senators who are present at the meeting.<\/p>\n

The next Faculty Senate meeting will take place on Friday, Dec. 4 in the Clayton University Center Boardroom.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lehigh\u2019s policy on protected characteristics related to discrimination and Title IX will remain the same regardless of federal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324270,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[121406,4784,119,121,120,1197,4164,295],"class_list":["post-324269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-9-minute-read","tag-administration","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-feature","tag-governance","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324269\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}