Summary of Senate Motions for 2004

MOTION 0405.BP.001.R (Domestic Partnership) SENATE ACTION: APPROVED (01-31-05)
- Whereas policy statement 802.01 of the Board of Regents Policy manual aspires to prohibit discrimination “on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, creed, national origin, age, or handicap” in “any program or activity conducted by the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia or any of its several institutions now in existence or hereafter established” but does not include a prohibition on the basis of sexual orientation; and
  
  Whereas the University System of Georgia and Georgia College & State University are committed to a policy of non-discrimination ensuring equal opportunities of employment and resources being made available to all their students, staff, and faculty; and
  
  Whereas Georgia College & State University is committed to encouraging cultural, ethnic, racial, and gender diversity in faculty, students and staff; and
  
  Whereas Georgia College & State University is committed to continuing to improve the positive campus climate at GC&SU to enhance the morale of our students, faculty and staff members;
  
  Therefore, the University Senate supports a formal request to the Board of Regents that it adopt policies and procedures which treat married couples and domestic partnership couples in an equal manner and ensure that system-wide benefits are available to both married couples and domestic partnership couples.
MOTION 0405.BP.002.P (Indirect Costs of Grants) SENATE ACTION: APPROVED (03-28-05)
- To change the portion of paragraph 15 in section 3.09.04.1 ACADEMIC DIVISION GRANTS: APPROVAL PROCESS of the Academic Affairs Handbook from
  - An eight percent (8%) administrative fee will be assessed on all grant proposals. These are indirect costs charged to the grant and should be included under the "sponsored" column. Funds generated from the administrative fee surcharge are used to support faculty research.
  to read as follows:
  - The federally negotiated and approved rate (currently 30%) should be used to calculate indirect costs and overhead expenses for grants. Acknowledging that sometimes it may not be possible or prudent to charge the approved rate, the university recognizes that some flexibility in the indirect cost policy is required. Therefore, a discretionary reduction in the indirect cost rate may be allowed under certain circumstances. In order to justify a rate lower than 30%, the administration may require input from the principal investigator and the program administrator for the funding agency and, when justified, the indirect cost rate can be reduced to a minimum of 8%.
  - If the minimum eight percent indirect rate is charged, then the entire amount collected will be allocated to the Faculty Research Program. Any indirect costs collected above the 8% will be equally divided and distributed to fund additional grant resources, services, and workshops and to support the research efforts of the departments and schools who receive the grant awards.