UNH Faculty Senate

Motion on shared governance
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UNH FACULTY SENATE
MOTION # XVI-M15

on shared governance

1.  Motion presenter:   Louise Buckley

2.  Dates of Faculty Senate discussion:   4/2/2012 and 4/16/2012

3.  Rationale: 

This motion clarifies that it is not sufficient shared governance for the administration to appoint a faculty member who is an advocate of the committee's charge. 

4.  Motion:

Whereas the senate constitution states that “the principle of shared governance in universities is long established by tradition and was formalized in the 1966 Joint Statement on Government of Colleges and Universities (jointly formulated by the American Association of University Professors, the American Council on Education, and the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges)”, and whereas the Joint Statement asserts that the distinctive responsibility of the faculty is the academic mission of the university, inclusive of “such fundamental areas as curriculum, subject matter and methods of instruction, research, faculty status, and those aspects of student life which relate to the educational process,” and whereas the Faculty Senate Constitution “provides for the faculty to exercise this responsibility through an elected Faculty Senate,” therefore the Faculty Senate resolves that shared governance requires significant faculty representation through senate appointments to any university-level committee or commission dealing with charges that directly or indirectly pertain to the university’s academic mission (e.g. ad-hoc committees, presidential panels or commissions, strategic initiative committees) but excluding those few committees that require specialized technical expertise or whose charge involves regulatory oversight (e.g. the Radiation Safety Committee, the Institutional Review Board for Human Subjects, the University Instrumentation Center, and the Animal Care and Use Committee) and any committee that the Faculty Senate chooses to exclude; and the Faculty Senate further resolves that, although senate appointees will participate in advancing the respective charges put before those committees, panels, or commissions, the primary role of the senate appointees is to serve as representatives of the Faculty Senate and its responsibility for the overall academic mission.

5.  Senate action:  passed unanimously.

6.  Senate chair’s signature:  Larry Prelli

Forwarded to:  President Mark Huddleston, on 4/24/2012

Forwarded to:  Provost John Aber, on 4/24/201

Forwarded to:  Lisa MacFarlane, Senior Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, on 4/24/201

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