The Faculty Governance Review Committee formed by Provost Robert E. Palazzo and President Shirley Ann Jackson in early October last year has recently completed its proposal for the best-fit governance system at RPI, and submitted it to the president for final review before it is sent to the Board of Trustees.
The review committee, chaired by the Rosalind and John J. Redfern Professor of Engineering, Jacob Fish, has been working for the past few months to develop its recommendation for the most appropriate form of faculty governance at the Institute. According to an e-mail recently sent to the faculty the committee, “has visited some leading universities and examined their university governance strategies, and has reviewed the literature of higher education associations to provide independent advice to the president and the Board of Trustees as we consider the most efficacious form of faculty governance for Rensselaer.”
In addition to the proposal submitted to Jackson, the committee co-chaired by Palazzo and deposed President of the Faculty Senate Larry Kagan has submitted a draft revision of the Faculty Senate Constitution to the President for review. The revision was supposed to bring these documents into conformance with the Institute’s bylaws and the Board of Trustees’ definition of the faculty.
Kagan said, “The draft has been discussed in general terms with the Faculty Senate and in more specific terms with the Faculty Senate Executive Committee.” This draft too will have to be approved by the President, and will then be sent to the Board of Trustees.
On Monday, February 25, the Fish Committee and the Palazzo-Kagan Committees are planned to meet jointly to discuss what work they have each done to date, according to Kagan, and “to see if any of the recommendations warrant amending.” He also stated that the Faculty Senate will schedule an open meeting to discuss the committees’ work at the beginning of March.
In addition to the two committees’ work, Palazzo and Vice President for Human Resources Curtis Powell have been working with the clinical faculty members to discuss issues raised by the clinical faculty.
Jackson stated in her e-mail, “We continue our analysis of the role of clinical faculty, and a review of compensation, benefits, appointment and promotion processes, teaching loads, and opportunities for involvement in academic programming and faculty governance in the departments and programs in which they are appointed.”
Although no details of the actual drafts were available, Jackson noted that she would share information with the general faculty, once the Board of Trustees has reviewed the committees’ reports. She also plans to “convene a meeting of the active tenured and tenure-track faculty to discuss the outcomes of these efforts, as we move forward as a community to resolve current issues and to strengthen faculty governance at Rensselaer.”
