Events in January and February, 2021

• Faculty Conversation, 11:30 am Wednesday January 27. Open discussion about the proposal.

• Faculty Council meeting, Wednesday January 27. Brief Presentation about the proposal.

• College meetings, Wednesday February 3. Discussion about the proposal.

• Happy Hour, 5:00 pm Friday February 12. Open discussion / cocktail hour. Email a committee member for the zoom link.

• Open House, 4:00 pm Thursday February 18. Open discussion. Email a committee member for the zoom link.

• Faculty Council, Wednesday February 24. Vote on the proposal.

Overview

In March 2020 Faculty Council charged our taskforce with drafting a specific proposal to reform faculty governance at Marymount, to be voted on by Faculty Council at the February 2021 meeting.

We propose a new system of faculty governance at Marymount - a combination of a Faculty Senate and a Faculty Assembly - to strengthen the voice of the faculty in university governance.

• A senate made up of about two dozen members would be able to organize more quickly and effectively to make decisions on behalf of the faculty, with members selected in a way that would represent the diverse interests and views of the faculty across academic units and ranks.

• A regular assembly of all faculty, meeting when necessary but at least once per semester, would ensure that everyone would be in the room to vote on critical issues and to hear important reports.

Our proposal and an explanation are collected here:

• The overall framework

• Frequently Asked Questions

• The complete proposal

Context and rationale

Faculty Council charged two taskforces in recent years - the first in 2019-20 and the second in 2020-21.

The first taskforce worked in 2019-20, following a charge from Faculty Council to consider the question of faculty governance broadly. That Faculty Governance Task Force surveyed faculty governance arrangements at other universities broadly similar to Marymount and conducted a survey of the Marymount faculty. The Task Force found deep dissatisfaction with Faculty Council, and proposed that the faculty at Marymount begin the process of adopting an alternative model to replace Faculty Council. The final report explains the reasoning and details a proposal (this page also includes details of the survey and analyses of governance at other universities).

Briefly, the first taskforce concluded that faculty would have a more effective voice by adding an elected faculty senate. A Faculty Senate of about two dozen members would be easier to organize than the current Faculty Council, and so would be able to move quickly and nimbly to address issues as they arise. Furthermore, members of the faculty senate would specialize in governance and oversight, and would be able to deal with issues in greater depth. As a result, a Faculty Senate that can take effective action would be a more stalwart defender of the interests of the faculty, and would also be a more useful partner to the administration in shared governance - these create incentives for the administration to work with faculty governance institutions, rather than trying to circumvent them. Meanwhile, a Faculty Assembly would maintain a breadth of representation, ensuring that the voices of all the faculty could be heard on important issues and that everyone can be in the room when critical decisions get made.

The second taskforce, created in March 2020 by Faculty Council, is the "Faculty Governance Drafting Taskforce." Our job is to present a specific proposal for a new system of governance, to be presented for a vote in Faculty Council on February 24, 2021. The task force met throughout the fall semester, 2020. We held a "faculty conversation" on September 23, presented an overview of the framework for our proposal at college meetings on October 28, and published our report and proposal in January, 2021.