gazette@watserv1.waterloo.edu (Chris Redmond) (11/23/90)
Draft text for next week's Gazette, posted in advance
in case it is of special interest:
That was no chairman -- that was my chair.
And "chair" is the more-or-less-official title now, following
passage of a brief motion by UW's senate on November 19.
It was proposed by UW provost Dr. Alan George, seconded by faculty
association president Dr. Len Guelke, and passed by senate after
a brief debate and with only a few votes against it.
"We are agreed," says the motion, {that all UW policies and
procedures should use gender neutral language.
"Accordingly, we move that the word "chair' replace the word
"chairman' in all places in which the later is now used in Policy 40
and in any other UW policies and procedures now in force or under
consideration."
Policy 40 is the statement -- itself currently under revision -- that
sets out how department chairmen (now department
.us chairs@) are appointed and removed, and what their job entails.
"By this motion," the text says, {it is understood that these
changes will occur as existing policies are revised, or at the next
reprinting of the Policy Manual."
In their discussion, senators seemed to agree that "chair" would now
apply both to the heads of academic departments -- except the ones
titled "director", a title that won't change -- and to whoever chairs
a committee.
Major exceptions include the chairman of the board of governors and
the job (assigned to the president of the university) of chairman of
senate; both those words appear in the University of Waterloo Act and
can't be changed except by the Ontario legislature.
There are also some UW policies that don't exactly come under the
jurisdiction of senate, such as ones dealing with staff salaries and
administrative matters, but in practice the change is likely to be
applied there too. It has been gradually creeping into general use
on campus, and the senate motion gives it official sanction.
Among those opposed to the motion was Dr. Don Ranney of kinesiology,
who called the confusion between a "chair" meaning the office and
a "chair" meaning its occupant "a dumb thing". He suggested
"chairperson" instead, but senate voted that amendment down.
And Dr. Peter Woolstencroft of political science told the meeting
that the use of "chair" for a person who heads some body has been
part of the English language at least since the year 1658.
"This is perhaps a small step in the right direction," Dr. Sandra
Burt of the same department agreed.
John Vellinga, president of the Federation of Students, offered a
broader motion that would "encourage" similar language changes in other
parts of the university, insisting on "he or she" and extending
the changes to all UW documents, not just policies. That motion is
likely to come to the senate for discussion next month.