Faculty Affairs Committee

Charge and Purpose

The Faculty Affairs Committee is concerned with all matters relevant to
the faculty’s well being, in the context of the overall well-being of the university. It facilitates the faculty’s role in shared governance and serves as a protector of faculty rights and a promoter of faculty responsibilities.

More specifically, its purpose is:

• to execute the informal and formal grievance procedures as set out in the Faculty Handbook
• to serve as a mechanism for the exchange of opinions and ideas among faculty, deans, and administrators
• to initiate proposals, including proposals to form ad hoc committees with particular charges, related to faculty governance and to faculty rights and responsibilities, including any aspects of the Faculty Handbook not delegated to a standing committee; all such proposals will be submitted to the Faculty Senate for approval
• to receive proposals from members of the university community, including administrators and any others who do not have specific representation on the Faculty Senate for ultimate consideration by the Faculty Senate; in collaboration with the Executive Committee of the Faculty Senate, to serve as the vehicle for bringing such proposals to the Faculty Senate
• in collaboration with the chief academic officer, to clarify and interpret the Faculty Handbook; to mediate, or to arbitrate if necessary, situations in which school or college actions seem to be at odds with university policies, and where appropriate, to refer issues to the Faculty Senate
• to receive questions and concerns related to shared governance, to
  investigate and clarify issues raised by any member of the university community; to provide informal mediation among affected parties, and to facilitate more formal action either through its own procedures, if all parties are faculty, or through a process developed in collaboration with the administration, if parties include both
  faculty and non-faculty
• in consultation with the appropriate administrators, agree on the degree of faculty participation on “Additional Committees of the University” (see V.C. below)
• to consult with the appropriate hiring authority on the degree of faculty participation on search committees for academic administrators (see 2.c.ii.(d) above)
• to receive from faculty names of potential candidates for honorary degrees, and to refer such names to the president, who may submit them, in addition to those recommendations that are made to the president from other sources, to the Board of Trustees