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Faculty Governance
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III. College Committees
Creation of College Committees
Standing Committees.
All standing college committees are created by the Faculty. In acting to create
a committee, the Faculty will establish the charge for the committee, its composition,
and the manner of appointment or election. The Faculty elects members for three
college committees: Nominating Committee, Faculty Interview and Search Committee
and Faculty Affairs Committee. Rules for election of these committees are stated
in an appendix to this document. For all other college committees, Faculty
members are appointed through nomination by the Nominating Committee and approval
by the Faculty.
Nominating Committee
Charge: The Nominating Committee nominates, for faculty approval,
members to all standing committees except those elected directly
by the faculty, that is Nominating, Faculty Interview and Search
and Faculty Affairs committees. It nominates, for faculty approval,
members to other committees when requested to do so by the appropriate
committees; nominates the clerk and recording clerk of the faculty;
prepares and maintains a record of all committee assignments,
including terms of service of the members; conducts elections
for Nominating and Faculty Affairs committees; supervises and
encourages the periodic pruning of the committee structure of the College;
and consults with the various committees and individual faculty
members concerning the composition and function of committees.
Membership: Academic Dean, three elected faculty members representing
the divisions, one elected administrative faculty member, and
one faculty member elected at-large.
Eligibility and Election
Rules: stated in Appendix A
Committee Composition
The normal term of a faculty appointment to a college committee is three years. Exceptions
to this norm are designated under the appropriate committees. Nominating Committee occasionally recommends appointments
for periods that differ from the normal term. These exceptions are usually in response to cases in which filling mid-term
vacancies would compromise continuity or schedule future simultaneous terminations of a majority of the faculty on a committee. The unqualified term "faculty" when used in the composition of a committee refers to the entire pool of Teaching Faculty,
Administrative Faculty Who Also Teach, and Administrative Faculty from which we draw nominees. Under some committees, the pool
is more specifically limited to subsets by Division, by Administrative or Teaching, etc. "Ex-officio" status on a committee is taken to mean that a member holding a position so designated normally ought not
serve as the convener of that committee. This is especially important in those situations where a committee acts in an advisory
capacity to the member holding that office. The President is an ex-officio member of all college committees. -
There are student members of all college committees except for committees
that make decisions about student standing or committees that are involved
in making judgments about individual members of the faculty or staff.
Student members of committees are chosen through Student Government nominating
procedures.
When staff members are included on a committee, they are selected by Employee Council. Faculty, student and staff members of committees are of equal status; and, unless otherwise stated,
may participate in forming a consensus or serve as convener.
Self-Perpetuating Committees
Self-Perpetuating Committees originate by a variety of means, though usually at the formal initiation of the
President of the College or the Provost. Their members are not appointed by recommendation of the Nominating
Committee to the Faculty Meeting. The manner of appointment to these committees varies: in some cases it is
ex officio by virtue of being in certain roles, in some cases these are administrative appointments, and
in some cases by virtue of teaching in a certain program. The activities of these committees seem to cease
when common sense so dictates. Ad Hoc Committees
From time to time, either the President or the Faculty may create ad hoc
committees to accomplish special purposes. The charge and composition of these ad hoc committees are stated
when they are created, and these ad hoc committees are dissolved when they complete the task for which they
were created. Within the terms of their charge, committees may create ad hoc sub-committees to further their work.
Final decisions or recommendations should be made by the full committee.
Committee Process
All college committees shall choose a convener from among their members
and communicate the name of the convener to the Nominating Committee and the Academic Dean. The means of selection
is left to the committee. In cases where a committee is advisory to or has oversight over an administrative unit,
representatives of the administrative unit who serve on the committee may not serve as convener. All college committee meetings are normally open to any members of the college community who wish to attend,
except Faculty Affairs Committee and Nominating Committee. Because of the personal nature of the information discussed,
these meetings are closed unless someone is expressly invited to attend because they have information the committee wants.
Those who choose to attend may observe, but not participate in the discussion unless asked to do so by the committee.
Attenders are also not to be part of consensus decisions reached by the committee in the course of carrying out
its business. In rare instances, committees may choose to go into executive session when only members of the
committee will be present during a meeting. Normally, committees meet in executive session when they are
considering cases involving individual persons. All committee conveners shall prepare and circulate agendas to the committee membership prior
to each meeting. In addition, committees should prepare longer-range agendas for their work over a
semester or academic year, and make these agendas available to the clerk of the faculty for possible
wider publication to the college community and for the planning of business to be brought to the faculty. Committee decisions are to be reached by a process of consensus that is respectful of the roles and
persons of all committee members. All committees shall keep minutes and publish these minutes in the manner determined
by the Nominating Committee. Copies of committee minutes should be posted to the WebDB and sent
to the College Archives. Furthermore, student members of committees are encouraged to communicate
actions that affect students to Student Government. Committees decide what items they should bring to the Faculty Meeting for information or
decisions in consultation with the Clerk of the Faculty. Committees that are advisory to administrative
offices and services report their deliberations to the office or director of the service.
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