Proposed Faculty Governance Reforms

The Chapter’s Faculty Handbook Working Group (FHWG) is proposing three governance reforms: 1) to strengthen the existing Compensation and Benefits Committee (CBC); 2) to constitute a Faculty Resources (FRC) standing committee for line allocation; 3) to constitute a Budget standing committee to replace the current unelected Budget Priorities Committee.
The FHWG’s detailed proposal can be viewed here, alongside a response to comments the FHWG has received from the university’s Educational Policy Committee (EPC), the Faculty Executive Committee (FEC), and the Advisory Committee.

For the purpose of comparing Wesleyan’s shared governance committee structure with that of our peers, the tasks of Amherst College’s Committee on Educational Policy include advice on line allocation: “The Committee on Educational Policy advises the president and the provost and dean of the faculty about the allocation of faculty positions to departments. In making recommendations for such allocations, the committee considers, inter alia, the curricular needs of individual departments and the commitment of departments to offer courses that meet identified college-wide priorities and curricular needs.” Similar to Amherst, the Council on Educational Policy at Swarthmore College “has set procedural guidelines for and reviewed the allocation of new or vacated faculty positions.” The constitution of Reed College commits the president to seek advice from the The Committee on Academic Policy and Planning on budgets and on “assignment of temporary FTEs and new positions; approval of job descriptions for regular and temporary appointments; staffing (FTE allocations) in the humanities and other interdisciplinary programs.”