Dear Members of the Campus Community,

I am pleased to announce the membership of the Council for Equity and Inclusion.  As you recall, the membership includes 2 student representatives (one elected, one selected by the SGA president and the provost); 2 staff members, one “exempt” and the other “non-exempt,” both elected; one alumni representative elected by the Alumni Board; two faculty members, one elected and one selected by the provost in consultation with the Deans Council; and two members of the President’s Leadership Team.  The members are:

Alumni representative

Janine Kimble ‘05

Faculty representatives

Anton Armstrong

Jeremy Loebach

President’s Leadership Team representatives

Bruce King

Hassel Morrison

Staff representatives

William (Mac) Austin

Wenie Lado

Student representatives

Tashonna Douglas ‘21

Danely Quiroz ‘21

Chair

Marci Sortor

Please join me in thanking the members of the Council on Equity and Inclusion for their willingness to serve the college community in this way! The Council will be spending this Saturday in a retreat. The retreat will focus on how the group will work together effectively and enhance members’ intercultural competency.  We will also review the Council’s charge, tasks and timeline. Last, we will discuss the ways in which members of the Council, individually and together, communicate with and represent the campus community.

I’ve heard questions about how people were chosen for the Council and what the two categories of college staff are.  Here are quick answers to both questions:

1. What do “Exempt” and “Non-exempt” mean?“Exempt” and Non-exempt” are used in federal labor legislation, particularly in regard to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Roughly, “non-exempt” refers to those employees who are paid on an hourly basis. At St. Olaf, we sometimes refer to “exempt” employees as “salaried.” Both categories of staff members are deeply committed to St. Olaf’s mission, highly professional, and both often speak of how they value working with and supporting students.  There are other differences between these sets of employees besides overtime pay—such as amount of authority and autonomy in their jobs—so the President’s Leadership Team recommended having representation on the Council from both groups.
2. How were the members of the Council elected? The Working Group report recommended the establishment of a broadly-representative Council.  This principle of representation of the key constituencies of the college — students, staff, faculty, alumni, and administration — is reflected in the composition of the Council. The report’s recommendations pointed to a combination of strategies for composing the Council: recruitment/selection and election. In regard to the election of representatives, students, faculty, and the alumni already have governance structures that manage the identification and election of representatives. Because these bodies exist as part of our governance structure, we relied on the SGA, the Faculty Governance Committee, the Alumni Board, as well as HR to arrange for the election of their representatives.

Best wishes,

Marci Sortor
Chair of the Council on Equity and Inclusion
Provost and Dean of the College
Professor of History