SECTION 2: GOVERNANCE
2.3 Faculty Committees
Since most detailed work of the faculty is accomplished through committees, committee service provides the faculty member with an opportunity to shape academic policy. In addition to teaching and advising, participation on faculty committees is regarded as an integral part of a faculty member’s professional responsibility. Service on faculty committees is expected and is counted as part of the faculty member’s service obligation. Faculty committees are those groups whose charge involves any or all of the following: (1) overseeing and making recommendations to the faculty regarding those areas over which authority has been delegated to the faculty (e.g., academic policy and offerings, degree requirements, admissions policy); (2) making recommendations regarding faculty performance and compensation (e.g., evaluation, pay, promotion, awards, and tenure); (3) faculty governance (e.g., faculty meeting rules, committee structure). Any committee whose charge falls within (1), (2), and/or (3) above shall be considered to be a committee of the faculty. Such committees report to the Faculty Senate and may only be established or eliminated by the Faculty Senate. Faculty committees are of three types: standing, curriculum advisory, and ad hoc.
2.3.1 Organization of and General Procedures for Faculty Committees New committee members normally are appointed or elected during the spring semester and begin their term in the fall. Unless its charge provides otherwise, each faculty committee elects during the spring semester a chair and a secretary from its faculty membership to serve the following year. No member may chair a committee upon which he or she has not served previously for at least one year, and no member may serve as chair for more than two years during any single term of service. Meetings of faculty committees shall be called by their chairs or by fifty percent of the members of the committees. A simple majority of the committee membership shall constitute a quorum. Prior to the end of each fiscal year (June 30), secretaries of faculty committees, except the Faculty Affairs Committee and the Promotion and Tenure Committee, will deposit copies of committee minutes for the previous academic year in the College Archives.
2.3.2 Consideration of Business by Faculty Committees Faculty committees consider issues mandated by their written charges or in response to motions made at meetings of the Faculty Senate. Faculty committees have no authority in and of themselves. When the committee charge so specifies, decisions in carefully defined areas are binding unless overruled by specific action of the Faculty Senate. Because the main task of faculty committees is to advise the Faculty Senate, each such committee is obligated to deal promptly with an issue referred to it by that body. Individual faculty members may also informally bring issues to the attention of any committee by writing to the committee’s chair. Committees are not obligated to deal with issues raised informally, but the committee’s chair or secretary should report the committee’s reaction to the faculty member raising the issue and retain all correspondence in committee files.