The faculty voice: Never more important than now

Marcia Killien — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Last year at this time, I wrote an article for University Week encouraging our faculty colleagues to consider participation in the faculty councils and committees. These elected bodies, approved by the Faculty Senate, are one of the three sites of faculty governance at the 91̽��. The other two sites of faculty governance are the Faculty Senate, newly restructured (see our article ) in order to provide for a more engaged and active membership, and the elected faculty councils of each college, school and campus at the UW.

Over the past several years, successful efforts have been made to increase and enhance communications between the elected faculty councils and the Senate. With the restructure of the Senate now in place, the newly revised Faculty Code includes a provision that all chairs of these councils serve as ex officio members (without vote) on the Faculty Senate.

The leadership of the Faculty Senate and I are confident that these changes have put faculty in a much stronger position to engage effectively with the enormous challenges currently facing the 91̽�� community. But for this to happen, we need to ask faculty members, who are already doing more with less, to consider active participation in either the senate; the elected faculty council in your college, school or campus; or one of the faculty councils or committees coordinated through my office.

By the time you read this, elections for faculty senators should be well under way. Elected faculty councils are appointed at various times during the academic year. Current contact information about your elected faculty council can be found on the .

My office is currently recruiting for new members of faculty councils and committees, and we have a few vacancies that need to be filled for the coming year. These include openings on the Faculty Council on Academic Standards, the Faculty Council on Benefits & Retirement, the Faculty Council on Faculty Affairs, the Faculty Council on Multicultural Affairs, the Faculty Council on Research, the Faculty Council on Student Affairs, the Faculty Council on Tri-Campus Policy, the Faculty Council on Teaching & Learning, the Faculty Council on University Facilities and Services, the Faculty Council on University Libraries and the Faculty Council on Women in Academia.

Faculty committees that require new members this year include: The Adjudication Panel, the Conciliation Board, the Advisory Committee on Faculty Code and Regulation and a multitude of ad hoc and advisory committees that require faculty and/or senate representation for limited amounts of time.

If you could consider participation on any of these, please contact my office for more information: 206-543-2637.

Going the extra mile: Faculty Senate seeks members for councils, committees

Marcia Killien — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 00:00:00 +0000

“A university is a community of scholars contributing, each according to his own talents and interests, to the transmission and advancement of knowledge. Because of its diversity of interests a university is a complex organization, not quite like any other in its management, which requires the understanding and good faith of people dedicated to a common purpose. A university administration must seek wisely and diligently to advance the common effort, and the strength of a university is greatest when its faculty and administration join for the advancement of common objectives. Much of the faculty-administration relationship has been established through long experience, and has the weight and good sense of academic form and tradition. But the terms of this relationship are essentially those of spirit, mutual respect, and good faith, and thus must be flexible to meet changing needs. Some of the traditions of the 91̽�� are given expression in the pages that follow. Yet these and other common understandings have meaning only to the extent that they reflect the integrity and faith of administration and faculty in the day by day accomplishment of their joint effort.”

– University Handbook, Volume Two, Section 13-01

This timeless statement was written in April 1956 by Professors Carl Allendoerfer, Alfred Harsch, William S. Hopkins, Brents Stirling, and E. Roscoe Wilcox, on behalf of the faculty, and was signed by Henry Schmitz, then President, on behalf of the administration. This year it is functioning as my guide as I begin, for the first time as Secretary of the Faculty, to launch efforts to populate the faculty councils and committees that are a natural outgrowth of the spirit of this statement.

The faculty councils, the standing committees of the University, are one of the three sites of faculty governance at the 91̽��. These councils advise both the provost and the Senate Executive Committee and include voting members of the University faculty, ex officio president’s designees, and other ex officio members representing the Associated Students of the 91̽��, the Graduate and Professional Student Senate, the Association of Librarians of the 91̽��, the Professional Staff Organization, and the 91̽�� Retirement Association.

There are 14 Faculty Councils that deal with issues from academic standards to women in academia. There are also a number of standing committees that deal with issues such as budget and intercollegiate athletics. All of these are crucial to the operation of this University. For example, in the past dozen years, the faculty councils have drafted legislation to change the University Handbook and the Faculty Code so that, when implemented, resulting policy protected the rights of faculty in tenure and promotion cases, clarified the role of faculty in helping to shape the annual allocation of salary money, and defined how disputes between a faculty member and the administration may and must be managed. Active faculty participation in deciding these matters of policy is clearly required.

We are currently recruiting voting members of the faculty for faculty councils and committees. Most of these involve three-year terms, beginning Fall Quarter, 2009. Please see for a survey where you can record your particular interests.

If you would prefer to contact us directly, please call my office (206-543-2637) or send me an e-mail at secfac@u.washington.edu, and we will include your name (and those of colleagues whom you might care to nominate) in our deliberations to select new members of faculty councils and committees.

As Professor Allendoerfer and his colleagues expressed above, our efforts at shared governance “have meaning only to the extent that they reflect the integrity and faith of administration and faculty in the day by day accomplishment of their joint effort.” Please join that effort by participation in a faculty council or committee. Contact us today.

Marcia Killien – 91̽��News

The faculty voice: Never more important than now

Going the extra mile: Faculty Senate seeks members for councils, committees