September 26, 2002
Professor Sandra Silberstein, Chair Faculty Senate Box 351271 Dear Professor Silberstein: By this letter I am transferring to you the report of the Special Committee on Faculty Council Organization commissioned by then Faculty Senate Chair Bradley Holt in his charge letter of November 13, 2001. The committee met eight times and started its deliberations by (a) considering the current activities of the various councils and (b) questioning how they might be reorganized to achieve increased effectiveness as well as better use of faculty time. After having discussions in this vein we felt the need for a broader examination of the current structure of UW’s shared governance. This in turn led us to consider a substantial reorganization that we believe will foster more effective, collaborative efforts between faculty and administration than does the current scheme and that, at the end of the day, will be more efficient. Our proposal has three components: (1) (2) a suggested addition to Section 13-01 of the University Handbook wherein we expand on the policy statement “defining” shared governance, recommendations for implementing the proposed reorganization based on the policy statement (these recommendations might guide the generation of new language for the University Handbook) and a chart illustrating in part how the reorganization might look (possible working committees of the councils are not included). All are attached.
(3)
The heart of our proposal is to replace current Faculty Senate Councils and the Senate Planning and Budgeting Committee with University Councils. These councils are to be focused on the university wide functions or activities within the purview of the President’s portfolio and those of the Provost and the Executive Vice President. On each of these councils an equal number of representatives shall be designated by the Senate on behalf of the faculty and by the President, Provost and Executive Vice President on behalf of the administration. The councils shall be co-chaired by a faculty member and a representative of the administration. As required the councils would have working committees, also with joint representation of the faculty and the administration. In configuring the councils and their working committees great effort shall be taken to minimize current duplication of administration committees and Senate committees. The University Councils and their working committees will be responsible for providing advice both to the administration and to the Senate Executive Committee. The new councils will constitute an intellectual commons for the university community, with representatives of the staff, librarians, and students participating as they do now with Faculty Councils and the budget committees. We anticipate that the University Councils quickly will become recognized as serious fora where, early in the life of issues, problems and initiatives, thoughtful, productive discussions between faculty and administrations occur routinely. We further anticipate the these discussions will lead, in turn, to effective, timely advice being provided both to the Senate Executive
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Committee and to the President and his administrative colleagues. We understand that there will not always be agreement within a council on the advice to be provided with the result that more than one viewpoint will be forwarded. The following examples constitute possible outcomes of our proposed reorganization and they are illustrative of the thrust of our suggestions. These examples presume that the administration and faculty adopt our committee’s proposal as written and we fully understand that this may not be the case. Example 1: The University Council on Planning and Budgeting replaces the University Budget Committee and the Senate Planning and Budget Committee. This university council is co-chaired by the Provost and the Vice Chair of the Faculty Senate. Working committees of this council might include one devoted to strategic planning and another devoted to enrollment planning. Example 2: The University Council on Research replaces the Faculty Council on Research and the Research Advisory Board. This university council is co-chaired by the Vice Provost for Research and a faculty member selected by the Faculty Senate. Working committees, jointly appointed, might include but not be limited to those addressing “Intellectual Property Management” and “Conflict of Financial Interest”. Example 3: The University Council on Diversity is co-chaired by the Vice President for Minority Affairs and a faculty member selected by the Faculty Senate. Its working committees, jointly appointed, might include one devoted to issues surrounding women at the UW. This particular committee would replace the current Faculty Senate Special Committee on Faculty Women and the President’s Advisory Committee on Women at the UW. In so far as it is possible to foster effective faculty/administration collaboration through a structure of governance we believe our proposal does just that. However, because of its departure from the current organizational scheme our proposal has very significant ramifications. Accordingly, we decided it was unproductive at this time to develop it in detail beyond what is presented here. Still we do realize that more detail will be required for a complete implementation of the proposal. Therefore we recommend that this letter and our proposal be presented to the Senate Executive Committee for examination by its membership, including of course, the President and Provost. If the membership finds the proposal attractive we urge you to join with the President and others to commence implementation as soon as possible. I have taken the liberty of including an appendix containing excerpts from the University Handbook concerning the functions and responsibilities of the President, the Provost, the faculty and the faculty Senate. Our committee’s proposal with its strong emphasis on facultyadministration collaboration is, in my view, perfectly consistent with the spirit and intent of these handbook excerpts containing both explicit and implicit expectations of shared governance, e.g.: 1. “the President has responsibility for the general welfare of the institution” 2. “the primary concern of the Senate is the general welfare of the university” 3. “the President authorizes the University faculty to formulate regulations for the immediate government of the University and to share responsibility with him and the academic deans in such matters as: 1. Educational policy and general welfare” 4. the provost “receives advice from the Senate Committee on Planning and Budgeting" and "provides leadership on academic matters through the Faculty Councils”. Changes certainly will be necessitated in the handbook if our proposal is implemented. For example, in Volume 2, Section 12-22, Paragraph A the sentence which now reads “In carrying out these responsibilities, the Provost chairs the University Budget Committee and the Facilities Resource Committee and receives advice from the Senate Committee on Planning and Budgeting” will require modification along the lines of “In carrying out these responsibilities, the
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Provost co-chairs the University Budget Committee through which he receives advice from representatives of the faculty senate. Depending on the details of the reorganization the reference to the “Facilities Resource Committee” also might have to be modified.
Norman J. Rose, Professor Emeritus, Dean Emeritus Chair, Special Committee on Faculty Council Organization. cc w/enclosures: Bradley Holt Members of the Committee: Steven Buck Jan Carline Jaime Diaz Christina Emerick Charles Haley G. Ross Heath Barbara Krieger-Brockett
Diane Martin Jacqueline Meszaros Lee Nelson Steven Olswang John Schaufelberger Douglas Wadden