Committees of the Faculty Assembly

Committees of the Faculty Assembly

The Faculty Assembly has seven working committees. The Executive, HMI and Senate Chairs committees are long-standing. In 2012, the Faculty Assembly Executive Committee approved and established four additional committees. Brief descriptions of these committees and their 2013-2014 charges appear below.

Academic Standards and Policies Committee

This committee examines System-level academic standards and policies. The FAEC has divided the ASPC into two working groups for the 2013-2014 academic year:

• GENERAL EDUCATION: This group is concerned with system-wide policies, programs, courses, and other matters related to the lower division curiculum and with general discussion around what a college degree means. The committee monitors system-level committee related to General Education, core competencies, student learning outcomes, transfer equivalencies, community college articulation agreements and degree mapping, and other widely shared concerns regarding the undergraduate curriculum. The committee assesses and provides feedback, and makes recommendations regarding policies and processes related to its main concerns.
• INSTRUCTIONAL EFFECTIVENESS: This group monitors workgroups and committees related to assessment, course delivery methods, e-learning, undergraduate research as a learning tool, section size, etc. The committee assesses and provides feedback on policy recommendations made by those large groups. Specifically, in the 2013-2014 academic year, this committee will acquire data on student success as related to instructional delivery methods and will assess the relative effectiveness of various course delivery methods (e.g. section-size vs. learning and MOOCs vs, large-enrollment face-to-face courses). The committee will produce a white paper on its findings.

Academic Resources

The Academic Resource committee (formerly the Budget Committee) focuses on budget issues related to the University’s academic mission. The committee monitors the impact of shared services, resource reallocation, section size, and other efficiency measures related to faculty workload, the changing profile of faculty (e.g., the the ratio of fixed-term faculty to tenured faculty. In addition, this committee examines how resource reallocation within the university can improve efficiencies while enhancing academic quality and student success. The committee also informs and advises the Faculty Assembly at large about System-level budgeting priorities and procedures and issues related to financial aid and tuition and fees.

Communications Committee

This Public Relations Committee (formerly the Faculty Welfare & External Communications Committee) is charged with developing plans for both internal and external communications of the Faculty Assembly. The committee devises means to help faculty understand the work of System Office and the nature of System-wide governance. The committee also works, in collaboration with System Office staff, to facilitate communication with the University’s external public constituencies, including legislators, institutional governing bodies, parents, concerned citizens and the general public.

Governance Committee

The Governance Committee deals with System-level shared governance issues, policies, and procedures. In addition, the Governance Committee coordinates with individual campus faculty governance bodies and the Faculty Senate Chairs committee to strengthen institution-level shared governance policies and procedures.

Historically Minority-Serving Institutions Caucus

This group deals with issues that are unique to our historically minority-serving institutions (HMSIs) and their constituents. In addition, the group gathers data that helps inform the Faculty Assembly’s work, especially as related to the impact of new academic policies on the HMSI campuses.

Senate Chairs Committee

This group is concerned with faculty governance issues at the campus level. The central charge of the committee is two-fold: the development and promotion of best practices in shared governance, and the recruitment of faculty expertise in academic policy and governance-related issues.