Following “heated and emotional” comments made about the “employee standards of conduct” administrative procedure at the May 9 Academic Senate meeting, the Senate discussed proposed resolutions to the policy Wednesday.

“It has to do with a lot of what we’ve experienced over the past nine months,” said Senate President Patricia Stark. “And how do we as an institution move forward doing things that will benefit our students and will help us to live up to our mission and our vision.”

AP 3051 was brought up last semester after a former adjunct instructor received several harassment complaints. It defines what is and is not considered harassment, as well as how unacceptable behaviors will be dealt with.

There are four parts of the “resolution to deploy academic senate resources to address bullying and harassment and promote a community of respect,” one of which being that the senate reviews APs when appropriate as implemented during their meeting. But the main focus of the resolutions are that the Senate use more of their resources in the prevention of poor employee conduct.

“We’ve got a mission and we’ve got a vision statement, they’re good,” Stark said. “What do we do to make sure were walking that walk and talking that talk?”

The discussion also came hours after Superintendent-President Anthony Beebe said he would allocate $20,000 in Aspen Excellence funds to the senate in an, unprecedented, all-campus email.

In the email, Beebe wrote that the funds were “to be spent however [The Senate] sees fit in researching, training, and developing best practices in balancing academic integrity, free speech, academic freedom, and civility.”

Although Stark said she doesn’t have an exact plan yet for the allocation of those funds, she told the senate that the funds are going to to be used to implement what’s in the resolution along with other types of initiatives the senate decides on.

Existing programs and workshops such as Ally for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Social Justice Achievement, and the Affective Learning Institutes are listed in the resolution not only to be endorsed by the senate, but to be priority workshops for spring by the Committee on Faculty Resources and senate representatives on the Professional Development Advisory Committee.

While no action was taken during the meeting, the Senators will review the resolution and take the item up again at their next meeting.