faq

Answers to common questions about the proposal. If you have a question that is not addressed here, please contact a member of the taskforce.

Why are we doing this?

The faculty at Marymount have enormous power, at least on paper. However, that authority can only be used if the faculty has a governance institution able to get things done. Coordinating decisive action quickly with a group of 170 people is extremely difficult under even the best of circumstances; the inability of Faculty Council to act on the staff telework policy despite broad support among the faculty illustrates the challenge - the faculty has the right to communicate directly with the Board on a very large range of issues, but it rarely does. Many issues never even come before Faculty Council (for example, the Provost's plan for reorganizing the schools) because people anticipate gridlock. As a result, people make major decisions affecting the faculty without going through an institution that represents the interests of faculty.

A faculty senate, with a smaller number of people (about two dozen) selected in a way that represents the broad diversity of interests and opinions among the faculty would be able to address issues quickly, as they come up. A faculty senate would therefore be able to deal with more issues, including ones that slip under the radar now. If we have a faculty senate, administrators will have an incentive to work with it to achieve shared objectives, because it combines both carrots (rewards) and sticks (punishments); from the perspective of administrators, a faculty senate would be both a carrot in that it would be an effective partner that could act quickly and decisively on areas of common interest, and a stick in that it would be able to more effectively push back against administrators who circumvent faculty governance or ignore the interests of faculty.

Aren't there times when it's good to have all the faculty together?

Yes. For some decisions, everyone should be in the room. So, in our proposal, any change to the Faculty Handbook will require a meeting of Faculty Assembly - a body that includes all of the faculty (like Faculty Council does now).

Other times when it might be good to have everyone together would be when there is bad news to share, or when there is an issue that the members of Faculty Senate think is important enough that they should defer to the Assembly, or when the members of the Assembly themselves think an Assembly meeting is warranted. Faculty Assembly will meet at least twice per year, but can also be called into an additional session by the Senate, or by the President of Faculty Assembly, by a petition of any ten Assembly members, or by any other rule that Faculty Assembly adopts.

In addition, during the first year of the new governance structure (2021-22) there will be additional meetings of Faculty Assembly as we make the transition to a working Faculty Senate.

What about Faculty Council Leadership?

The Faculty Council Leadership committee is terrific. In our proposal the Faculty Council Leadership committee would get a new name - the Faculty Leadership Committee - but otherwise would play the same role. It would be chaired by the President of Faculty Assembly, who would serve as the primary point of contact between the faculty and the administration, and would also include the officers of Faculty Senate and Faculty Assembly, and a representative from each college (and the library) not otherwise represented by one of those officers.

Does this mean we are giving up our rights under the Settlement Agreement?

No.

Under the proposal, an amendment to the Settlement Agreement clarifies that the new structure - Faculty Senate and Assembly - inherits the rights of Faculty Council under the Agreement. For our proposed new Senate/Assembly system to be adopted, it would have to be approved by the Board; part of approving the overall proposal is accepting that language.

And, no, the Board can't pull a fast one by accepting all of the changes except the one that says that says that the Senate/Assembly inherits the rights of the Council; one of the implementing resolutions clarifies that all of the proposed changes happen together, or not at all. You can see those at the bottom of the proposal page.

How will this affect the structure of committees and committee assignments?

It won't.

In order to keep the numbering of sections consistent in the Faculty Handbook, we are keeping the descriptions of the committees in section 5, the same section that has the new bylaws for the Senate and Assembly. Other than changing the language in the committee descriptions that refers to "Faculty Council," we are not making any changes to the way any of the committees work.

Does this address the problem of committee structure under the new school arrangement?

No. That wasn't our taskforce's charge. There is another committee working on that problem, not connected to ours.