Handbook - prior to January 2019

Affirmative Action Plan [edit]

Eastern Mennonite University takes this occasion to reaffirm its policy concerning nondiscrimination.

The policy is as follows:

Eastern Mennonite University does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national or ethnic origin, sex, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity or any legally protected status in administration of its employment and educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other school-administered programs.

EMU is owned and operated by the Mennonite Church as a religious organization. EMU claims exemption from Federal law requiring nondiscrimination on the basis of religion. This means that EMU reserves the right to give preference in hiring to persons sharing a commitment to Christian faith which is consistent with the doctrine and teachings of the Mennonite Church.

EMU places high value on the importance of the cross-cultural component as part of the educational experience. This requires that our community be multicultural in character as well. As an academic community, EMU recognizes the importance of having diversity of gender, race, color, age, national and ethnic origins. In order to more adequately obtain such diversity, EMU will actively strive to increase the number of minorities and women on its faculty and staff at all levels.

The Administration will work at achieving this goal in the following ways:

1. All persons seeking to hire a replacement or fill a new position will need to demonstrate their efforts in finding qualified minority candidates.
2. Databases of potential faculty and staff persons are being created and early contacts with prospective candidates, particularly women and minorities, are being cultivated.
3. A financial assistance plan is designed for prospective women and minority faculty who pursue doctoral studies with a commitment to teach at EMU.
4. A limited number of teaching fellowships will be provided for women and minority doctoral candidates to explore teaching and their compatibility with EMU.

All members of the EMU community must be supportive of the institution's affirmative action plan to make EMU a more diverse institution.

Responsibility for administering the AAP rests with administrative division heads for the employees in their division. Other primary areas of responsibility are assigned as follows:

Adopted by Board of Trustees - August 1989, Revised