Draft recommendations to update the George Washington University Faculty Code and Faculty Organization Plan were discussed at Friday’s monthly meeting of the Faculty Senate, as Board of Trustees Chair Nelson Carbonell, B.S. '85, and Trustee Madeleine Jacobs, B.S. ’68, outlined the next steps in the university’s shared governance revision process.
Proposed recommendations put together by four working groups on shared governance—made up of 27 faculty, eight university trustees and eight administrators—were shared with the university community during the past two weeks at a series of town hall events, and now await input and feedback from the Faculty Senate and university administration.
“The working group recommendations highlight important issues that face GW as an institution,” Mr. Carbonell said. “I’m confident in our collective ability to join together and lead the George Washington University to a bright future.”
The working groups received feedback on the recommendations prior to releasing the draft from the Faculty Senate’s Executive, Professional Ethics and Academic Freedom and Appointment, Salary and Promotion Policies committees. Formal feedback, in the form of a Faculty Senate resolution, could come as early as next month. The Faculty Senate Executive Committee and the Academic Affairs Committee of the Board of Trustees will hold a conference call next week, said Charles Garris, chair of the Faculty Senate Executive Committee. A resolution would follow, possibly prior to the May Board of Trustees meeting, said Madeleine Jacobs, B.S. ’68, chair of the Board of Trustees’ Committee on Academic Affairs.
“The Committee on Academic Affairs will not deliberate until it receives feedback from the administration and a Faculty Senate resolution,” she said.
University Trustee Madeleine Jacobs provided an overview of the faculty governance revision process, which included a series of town hall events the last two weeks (William Atkins/GW Today).
The process is similar to one undertaken last spring, when the Board of Trustees codified the first of five principles for future university governance by enhancing protections for academic freedom after receiving a resolution from the Faculty Senate and further input from the Faculty Senate Executive Committee and the administration.
“I envision that most of these recommendations will move through a similar process,” Mr. Carbonell said. “My expectation is we will need additional input and additional time to deliberate. As we’ve demonstrated in the past, we will take additional time if it’s required.”
Recommendations from the working groups include expanding access to serve on the Faculty Senate to include regular, full-time contract and specialized faculty who have attained the rank of associate professor. The recommendations also call for the Academic Affairs Committee to confer faculty tenure decisions and for the construction of a university-wide committee to review and provide advice concerning certain tenure and promotion matters in instances of non-consensus among a department or school-wide personnel committees, and a dean.
The town hall meetings (a PowerPoint presentation is available on the governance website) served as forums for feedback, opinions and concerns regarding the proposed changes. Faculty may also share their input through an online forum on the governance website, Ms. Jacobs said. A questionnaire has been deployed to solicit more faculty feedback, she added, and will remain open until April 21.
“I urge you and your colleagues to fill it out,” she said. “There is ample room for comment.”
In brief remarks, George Washington President Steven Knapp provided an update on the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design's annual thesis exhibition, NEXT, which opened last week. (William Atkins/GW Today)
Friday’s meeting included the approval of a revised edition of the Faculty Handbook and nominations and voting for Faculty Senate appointments. Among those appointments, Dr. Garris was re-elected as chair of the Faculty Senate Executive Committee.
In brief remarks, Provost Steven Lerman provided an admissions update. GW admitted about 9,000 undergraduate students out of 19,780 applicants. The quality of the applicants, he said, is up, based on GPA and standardized test scores.
“I think that’s a tribute to GW being more competitive,” he said. “We have more students in our top academic rankings than we’ve had in the past. We’re looking forward to a great class. The next thing, of course, is getting them to come here.”
President Knapp provided brief remarks that included a recap of last week’s university announcement to implement budget reduction strategies. Units in the central administration have been asked to cut costs by 5 percent. Some are restructuring staff by eliminating existing and/or vacant staff positions.
“That’s not been an across the board slashing, like a sequestration,” he said. “It’s been a very careful, targeted restructuring to, where possible, find ways to reduce cost. This does, however, have a human cost because it does mean there are reductions in the number of positions in the central administration. In all those cases we’re helping [those affected] in the transition process to find other opportunities for employment.”
Dr. Knapp also provided an update on the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design’s annual thesis exhibition, NEXT, currently on display at the Corcoran building.
“The exhibits are very interesting, very innovative and will give you a sense of the imaginative energy of our students,” Dr. Knapp said. “It convinced me that we have tremendous opportunities to develop a unique and very powerful model of arts education in the heart of this nation’s capital.”
