The dismissal policy needed to be updated to bring it into compliance with Board of Regents policies, said Jeanne Balsam, chair of the Statutes Committee of the General Faculty. 

Changes to Section 17.3.2 were approved during an April 26 meeting of the Academic Senate, Academic Faculty and General Faculty. During this meeting, modifications to Section 5.10 were presented for a first reading and received final approval on Oct. 4.

Modifications to the IP Policy, or Section 50, were recommended to address issues that arose during the Stanford vs. Roche lawsuit, Balsam added. The primary changes to this policy:

• clarify ownership of student IP, meaning that Georgia Tech Research Corporation (GTRC) would not own most student IP,
• provide for a license to use student copyrights, which allows Georgia Tech to showcase student work, while students maintain the copyright,
• add clarification of when students shall be required to execute an IP agreement (section 50.5 B),
• define an IP Committee, which will be overseen by the executive vice president for research (EVPR) and administered by the general manager of GTRC, and
• state that appeals will be made to the EVPR.

In addition to the changes, Balsam also announced that the Faculty Handbook website has been updated and is now easier to use and search. An updated version that incorporates all of the recent changes will be available by the end of the month here.

Those with questions regarding the changes or the updated website should contact Balsam. 

To view the agenda for this meeting and the supporting documents that were provided for each item, click here.