MSCHE/ACOE Self Study

5.2 A system is in place to enable faculty participation in governance. The role and responsibilities of the Faculty in College governance (Faculty By- laws – as approved April 5, 2010) are published in the Faculty Handbook (http://www.sunyopt.edu/faculty/hb/bylaws.html or Appendix C-5). This document details the committee structure upon which faculty governance is organized. The current composition of elected and appointed committees can be found in Appendices C-6 and C-7, respectively. To encourage greater faculty participation in College governance, President Heath encouraged the Faculty to reorganize its committee structure so that certain key committees are elected from and by members of the Faculty. Previous to this restructuring, only two committees (Committee on Professional Qualifications and Faculty Executive Committee) were elected by faculty members, and all others were by presidential appointment. The elected Faculty Executive Committee (FEC), which consists of the presiding officer, presiding officer elect, secretary, faculty senator, faculty senator alternative, professional program representative and graduate program representative, is responsible for facilitating communication and coordination of activities among the president, dean, vice presidents, and the Faculty. It reports to and consults with the vice president for academic affairs, but may also seek consultation with the president at any time. The specific responsibilities of the FEC as published in the bylaws are to:  Call and conduct quarterly meetings of the faculty. Additional meetings may be held at the call of the faculty presiding officer, or at the request of 10 or more members of the voting faculty. All requests must be made in writing and presented to the faculty presiding officer  Meet regularly to discuss and conduct faculty business  Monitor the functioning of the faculty elected committees, and include reports of these committees on the agenda of faculty meetings  Serve as representatives to the Faculty Student Association  Work with the vice-president for academic affairs to assure the Faculty Handbook is updated annually  Facilitate the conduct of elections of faculty-elected committees in accordance with each committee’s membership as described in the appendices At the quarterly faculty FEC meetings, each elected faculty committee is expected to summarize its activities. Examples of minutes are available on campus for review. President Heath has strongly supported and encouraged the Faculty to take an active role in College governance. Attendance at faculty meetings has steadily increased to the point where attendance sometimes surpasses 50, more than double what it had been prior to the current College administration.

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