[Lingtyp] ALT vote on code of conduct

David J Beck dbeck at ualberta.ca
Wed Nov 22 17:01:48 UTC 2017


Yes, I agree with Elena, Bill, and Sebastian here. Based on my experience in admin roles at a university dealing with and watching complaints of harassment and (sometimes very) bad behaviour unfold, I think that ALT has to proceed carefully here if we want to talk in terms of sanctions and procedures, however much we would like to have them. With the exception of the kind of disruptive or criminal behaviour that could/should lead conference organizers to call hotel security and/or the police, for most complaints of harassment it is going to be very difficult to evaluate cases and apply sanctions in a fair manner that meets the minimum standards of administrative justice (as we call it in Canada) in a timely and effective manner. I find it hard to imagine that a complaint could be dealt with in the time span of a conference, or that any administrative procedure developed by ALT could proceed fairly and be made to “stick” in the longer term once the conference is over and witnesses and other parties to the proceedings are scattered over the globe. The ALT membership is certainly within its rights to try to set up something like that, but it has to be done carefully and with due consideration, and needs to be backed up by an administrative procedure that is outlined in the by-laws and ratified by the members. Members of ALT/conference-goers would have to be alerted to the fact that they have agreed to abide by these by-laws at the time they join/register for the conference. (By that I mean the administrative procedures—people don’t have to agree not to be harassers or disruptive, that is a legal requirement in most jurisdictions that you can’t opt out of.)

IMHO, having a CoC WITHOUT getting into sanctions—and making (most likely) unenforceable threats—achieves in practice the most valuable goals of having a CoC in the first place. It declares the collective position of the organization against these things and, in fact, creates the more natural conditions for the enforcement of agreed upon social norms by licensing any member of ALT to intervene in incidents or offer support and protection to those aggrieved by these acts (indeed, ALT could appoint an officer in charge of supporting targets of non-criminal harassment or even potentially mediating cases where that seems desirable). A CoC in and of itself can be a welcome mat for people who might feel vulnerable or unsure that their right to be treated with respect is recognized by ALT. But practically speaking, going beyond that down the rabbit hole of administrative justice is much trickier and unlikely to bear much fruit. Even if the membership decides to go that way, I can only repeat what I said above, and what Sebastian and Bill have said: it can’t be done lightly or in a slipshod manner. The current vote is premature and (as Bill notes) problematic in terms of its face validity—in fact, being unprepared and careless, I missed that this was supposed to be any more than an aspirational statement and voted “yes” (because who in their right mind isn’t against that stuff?). I might also suggest that in the future when it comes to complicated issues like this, we follow the Notice of Motion —> Motion pattern so that we can have the discussion before the vote is called, and the movers of the motion have the chance to revise or even withdraw the motion based on concerns raised in the discussion.

David


> On Nov 22, 2017, at 10:19 AM, E. Bashir <ebashir at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
> Another message from a (non-member?) participant in the ALT list:  the suggestion in this latest post from Bill Croft seems balanced and workable.  If I am/were able to vote, I would argue in favor of a solution like the one proposed in Bil Croft's post.
> 
> Elena Bashir
> 
> 
> 
> From: William Croft <wcroft at unm.edu>
> To: Linguistic Typology <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org> 
> Sent: Wednesday, November 22, 2017 9:48 AM
> Subject: [Lingtyp] ALT vote on code of conduct
> 
> Dear all,
> 
> There have been many valuable and useful points made in these posts. I think I am most in agreement with the three emails posted by Sebastian Nordhoff. There seems to be a broad consensus among the contributors to this list that sexual harassment (and other sorts of harassment) is a serious problem that must be addressed, and that a suitable code of conduct is an important step to take to address this problem. As Sebastian says, this is good. However, the way this is being carried out is problematic and divisive.
> 
> Sebastian argues that the aims of discouraging harassers and encouraging victims to speak out, vs. creating a legally defensible process to sanction violators, are rather different. In particular, sanctions need to be accompanied by a process. Otherwise, ALT would be legally vulnerable if sanctions were ever applied; and in the US at least, nonprofit board/exec members are personally liable for damages awarded against nonprofits.  Note that ACL's current code of conduct achieves the first aim (regarding harassers and victims), and now their exec is simultaneously considering sanctions and the process for applying them.
> 
> I think that imposing sanctions without a process is a significant flaw, and could lead to some serious liability issues. So I don't want to vote "Yes". But like everyone here, I believe that ALT should do something concrete and visible to discourage harassers and encourage victims to be unafraid. So I don't want to vote "No" either. But I don't have another choice -- especially if we turn to the ALT statutes, which are (now?) downloadable from the ALT website.
> 
> The statutes do not have any procedure for adopting policies or amendments. There is only a procedure for voting for the exec members, i.e. a simple majority vote. This actually doesn't make sense, since the nominees are unopposed (and there is no procedure for write-in candidates). So if I am opposed to a nominee, I can only leave the ballot blank. But the statutes do not require a quorum, so leaving the ballot blank is useless. The same is true if I leave the code of conduct question blank, to communicate that a different code of conduct is what is needed right now. Finally, the one thing the statutes do say is that only members can vote. As was noted before, anyone on this list, not just members, can vote. So the vote violates the statutes if any non-member of ALT on this list votes, but we can't tell because the ballot is secret. (This applies to the vote for executive board members, not just the code of conduct.)
> 
> I do not think this is the way to proceed. This process introduces divisions where there is a wide consensus on the way forward. Right now many have argued that although they support a code of conduct, they will vote "No" because the code is flawed. These people will be upset if the code is passed. Conversely, many have acknowledged the flaws, but will vote "Yes" because they feel it is important to have a code of conduct, no matter the flaws. These people will be upset if the code fails. And the voting process probably violates the statutes to the extent that the statutes cover this vote, which they don't.
> 
> Since I have argued that this is not the way to proceed, I feel obliged to stick my neck out and offer an alternative. I urge the ALT exec to reconsider their decision to hold this vote, for both the executive committee members and the code of conduct. I believe that there has probably been enough debate on this list for the ALT exec to prepare a revised code of conduct (e.g. based on the current ACL code) that would be acceptable to the great majority of ALT members. 
> 
> I would then propose that the ALT exec bring to the ALT business meeting next month revised statutes for the organization that would do at least the following:
> 
> --provide a process for adopting policies and amending the statutes;
> --possibly require more than a simple majority for adopting policies and amending the statutes (I think this is part of what Sebastian had in mind in his second email);
> --create a quorum for votes
> 
> And then put the revised statutes, and if the revised statutes are adopted put the revised code of conduct to a vote following these procedures (including restricting voting to members). If the business meeting constitutes a quorum, then these would be adopted immediately. Otherwise, a ballot can be taken as soon as possible after the ALT meeting.
> 
> It is NOT my intention to use the problems I perceive in the current proposed code and the process to adopt it, as an excuse to continue to do nothing about the issues at hand. I would like to see this done as soon as possible, like everyone else on this list, in a way so that everyone will strongly endorse both the process and the outcome.
> 
> Best wishes,
> Bill
> 
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