Structure of Shared Governance at FDU

Governance Steering Council (GSC)

The GSC coordinates and monitors issues that engage all constituents of the university and can send those issues to other committees and councils for their review.

Membership, Leadership, and Terms of Office in the GSC

The GSC comprises six faculty members selected by the Faculty Senate, representing the three degree-granting campuses, one individual selected by the Professional Administrative Senate (PAS), one individual selected by the Office & Professional Employees International Union (Union), one individual selected by the Student Leadership Council (a new leadership structure, see below), the University Provost, the Chief Financial Officer (currently, the Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer), and Chief Student Affairs Officer (currently, the Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students) or their respective designees. All the individuals named above are voting members of the GSC.  In addition to the voting members of the GSC, two non-voting individuals participate in the GSC: one representative of the Vancouver Campus’s Alumni Association and one representative of the NJ Campuses’ Alumni Association. Non-voting alumni representatives are selected by the relevant Board of Governors.

The Provost, representing the President’s Cabinet, and a faculty member serve as co-chairs of the GSC. The faculty co-chair is selected by the faculty delegation on the GSC.

Faculty members, administrators representing the PAS, and staff representing the Union, on the GSC serve a term of two years each, renewable. The faculty members have staggered terms. Students serve a term of one year, renewable. The Provost, Chief Financial Officer (or their designee), and Chief Students Affairs Officer (or their designee) are permanent members. The faculty co-chair of the GSC should have one year of prior experience as a GSC member whenever possible.

The home campus of the non-faculty members rotates from year to year.

The GSC is supported by a staff member responsible for organizing meetings of the GSC, taking minutes at meetings of the GSC, communicating on behalf of the GSC to stakeholder governance bodies (defined below) as well as committees and councils, and tracking the progress of the review of proposed new policies or revision of existing policies on a University-wide website. Posting GSC’s progress and activities on a website also helps FDU document its efforts to foster and operationalize a culture of transparent and continuous improvement.

Purpose of the GSC

The purpose of the GSC is to examine suggestions – from any member of the FDU community – for changes to existing policies or practices and suggestions for the creation of new policies or practices at Fairleigh Dickinson University, to determine whether they are appropriate for further consideration, to develop charges to the relevant committee or advisory council, to review the proposals from those committees or councils, and, as appropriate, to recommend those proposals to the relevant decision-making authority of the University, be it the President, a Vice President, or through the President, to the Board of Trustees.

The GSC may choose to invite any University community members to participate in the discussion of any particular agenda item; individuals thus invited to one or another meeting do not have voting rights on the GSC. Individual community members may request to come to a GSC meeting to address a particular issue, and the GSC may choose to extend or not to extend such an invitation as it sees fit.

Members of the GSC are expected to discuss matters raised in the GSC as appropriate with their respective governance stakeholder bodies. The GSC does not address issues within the authority of the faculty as specified by the Faculty Handbook.  

The Work of the GSC

If there is a question if a matter is an issue within the authority of the faculty, the faculty representatives on the GSC will consult the Faculty Handbook and the Faculty Senate and report their conclusions to the GSC for discussion that will lead to a solution agreeable to all parties.

In formulating a charge to a committee or council, the GSC identifies the level of analysis required for that committee or council’s work on the given issue and the deadline by which the GSC expects to receive the committee’s or council’s reports. 

The levels of analysis are:

When the GSC refers a matter for review to a committee or council (see description of University-Wide Committees and Councils, below), it includes in the charge its deadline for a response and the instruction that the given review be conducted in one of the three levels of analysis as follows:

• Level 1 (lowest level): Members of the committee or council discuss and report back to the GSC
• Level 2 (mid-level): Members of the committee or council discuss and develop a preliminary response, present it to the relevant governance stakeholder bodies (defined below) for feedback (as specified in the charge from GSC), revise the response accordingly, and submit to the GSC; The governance stakeholder bodies are: for the faculty, the Faculty Senate; for the non-Union staff – the Professional Administrative Senate; for the Union employees – the Union; for the students – Student Government; for alumni – the Alumni Advisory Councils.
• Level 3 (highest level): Members of the committee or council discuss, research relevant policies and practices at some other institutions and/or consider best practices as documented in the research literature, develop a preliminary response, present to the relevant governance stakeholder bodies as specified in the charge from GSC for feedback, revise the response if deemed appropriate, and submit to the GSC; The governance stakeholder bodies are: for the faculty, the Faculty Senate; for the non-Union staff – the Professional Administrative Senate ; for the Union employees – the Union; for the students – Student Government; for alumni – the Alumni Advisory Councils.

Once the GSC has sent a charge to a committee, council, or ad hoc task force and has received the response from that body, the GSC responds with one of these options:

1. Approved and recommended to the relevant decision-making authority
2. Returned to the relevant lower-level body for clarification or consideration of additional questions
3. Referred to another lower-level body for additional work
4. Rejected (with justification and, if appropriate, direction for further work). Note that the GSC does not have the authority to reject a decision of the Faculty Senate on an academic matter as per the provisions of the Faculty Handbook.

The GSC strives to come to consensus on all matters brought to its attention. When it fails to come to consensus, the GSC members vote on the given matter and when the GSC is not unanimous in its recommendation to the relevant decision-making authority on any matter, the GSC must provide majority and minority opinions so that the decision-making authority can see all the perspectives discussed by the GSC.

Some matters brought to the GSC’s attention may require a prompt response and the GSC will have to consider that in its work and how it works with the University-wide committees, advisory councils, and stakeholder bodies. As one example only, changes to federal, state/provincial, or local laws may require changes to University policies on an urgent basis. In such cases, the University’s General Counsel will notify the GSC of those changes and the GSC may request a discussion with the General Counsel and other relevant University officers to discuss the implications of these changes.

Stakeholders and Governance Stakeholder Bodies

The Stakeholders of the University are the University’s faculty, non-faculty employees (both union members and individuals who are not union members), students, alumni, and members of the Board of Trustees.

The Stakeholders of the University are represented in the following Governance Stakeholder Bodies described here :

The Board of Trustees is the highest-level governance body at Fairleigh Dickinson University. It is governed by its own By-Laws.

The President of the University, who is a member of the Board of Trustees, acts in accordance with the Board’s By-Laws, and is the chief executive officer of the University.

The President’s Cabinet consists of those individuals who report directly to the President, including the Provost, General Counsel, and others, as per the decision of the President.

The Senior Leadership of the University consists of the President’s Cabinet and of those individuals who report directly to them, including Deans of Colleges, Directors of Independent Schools, Associate Vice Presidents, and Associate Provosts.

The University-Wide Faculty Senate is a stakeholder body that represents all full-time faculty, as defined in the Faculty Handbook, on all FDU campuses with some non-voting representation of part-time faculty on all FDU campuses, as determined by the Faculty Senate. The Faculty Senate does not represent instructors who are primarily administrative or staff employees, who are represented by the Professional Administrative Senate.

The University-Wide Professional Administrative Senate represents all full-time and regular part-time non-faculty employees on all FDU campuses, except those individuals who are members of the Union (see below) or members of the University’s Senior Leadership. This is currently a body that reflects only NJ-based administrators and will expand to include all non-Union employees on all FDU campuses.  Furthermore, the Professional Administrative Senate (PAS) may invite contracted employees to share feedback with the PAS through non-voting attendance at PAS town halls or in surveys as deemed appropriate.

The Office & Professional Employees International Union, Local 153, consists of all regular full-time and part-time office, clerical, and secretarial employees at the Florham and Metropolitan campuses, including athletic department employees and technical employees, but does not include individuals whose primary role is that of student, administrative staff to the President, clerical positions that report to the Controller, Faculty Information Specialist, Computer Center Shift Supervisors, all employees in the University Human Resources Department, Payroll Department,  professional employees, part-time employees employed less than 16 hours per week, confidential employees, managerial employees, uniformed public safety employees (except secretaries and clerks), and all supervisors as defined in the National Labor Relations Act, (29 U.S.C. Sec. 151-169) and all other employees represented by the Union.

The Alumni Advisory Councils consist of the FDU-NJ Alumni Board of Governors, which represents FDU alumni of either New Jersey campus, and the FDUV Alumni Board of Governors which represents alumni of the FDU Vancouver Campus.

Student Government Associations represent all full-time and part-time students at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, on each degree-granting campus and on-line, excluding students who are primarily employees of the University and represented by another stakeholder body. The Student Government Associations may invite learners at off-campus locations to provide feedback on matters as they (the Student Government Associations) deem appropriate. Student Government Associations currently exist on both New Jersey campuses, and one will be created at Vancouver.

University-Wide Student Leadership Council consists of the members of the executive boards of each campus-based student government association, including a Student Government Association to be established at the Vancouver Campus.

The Governance Stakeholder Bodies elect or appoint individuals, in processes they design to represent them, on the GSC and all other University-Wide Committees and Councils identified in this Charter of Shared Governance:  Faculty Senate, Professional Administrative Senate, Union, Student Governments, and Alumni Advisory Councils. Furthermore, it is the responsibility of each Stakeholder and Governance Stakeholder Body to determine how individuals are represented within their Governance Body (e.g., the Faculty Senate determines how faculty elect faculty senators).

University-Wide Committees and Advisory Councils

Committees

The University Student Affairs Committee (USAC) consists of representatives of students, a full-time faculty member, a PAS member, and a member of the Union, convened by the Vice President for Student Affairs (VPSA) or their designee, together with the chief student affairs officer on the Vancouver Campus. The faculty member is a volunteer recruited by the VPSA.

The University Planning and Budget Committee (UPBC) consists of senior administrators appointed by the President, the five faculty from the Faculty Senate’s Planning and Budget Committee (PBC), as well as one administrator chosen by the PAS. The UPBC may invite to its sessions a non-voting staff member chosen by the Union and non-voting students appointed for this purpose by the University-Wide Student Leadership Council.

The University Review Committee and the University Grievance Committee are also University- Wide Committees and function as specified in the Faculty Handbook, but are not part of the Shared Governance Structure.

Advisory Councils

The University Academic Planning and Policy Council (UAPPC) consists of the APRC (constituted as per the Faculty Handbook), with one administrator chosen by the PAS, one staff member chosen by the Union, and one student chosen by the University-wide Student Leadership Council. The administrator, staff member, and student will serve a term of one year, renewable, at the discretion of their relevant stakeholder body. This body provides the APRC with a systematic way of consulting with staff and students about any matters the APRC is reviewing as part of its oversight of academic policy and programs. The APRC consults with the UAPPC on matters of interest to students and staff (e.g., proposed changes to the University’s grading scale), but for matters in which students and staff have no interest (e.g., reappointment, tenure, and promotion of faculty), the APRC may but need not consult with the UAPPC.

The Information Technology Advisory Council (ITAC) which replaces the ATAC (Academic Technologies and Applications Council) on both the NJ campuses, consists of four to six individuals, representing each of the stakeholder groups (faculty, administration, PAS, Union, students) and chosen by them. The members of ITAC also represent, together, the three degree-granting campuses, chosen by the stakeholder groups. Members of the ITAC have a term of one year. The ITAC meets regularly with the University’s CIO and its members report back to their relevant stakeholder bodies who, if necessary, will communicate concerns to the relevant University vice president.

The Community Affairs Councils (one on each campus) consist of volunteer faculty, professional administrative staff, members of the Union, and students on each of the University’s campuses, who work on enhancing relationships between the University and the community in which each campus is located. The council will be chaired by one of the volunteers as chosen by the Provost on the advice of the members of each campus-based council and others on the relevant campus. The position of chair of each campus-based community-affairs council will be for a term of one year, renewable. The chairs of the campus-based community affairs councils meet at least once a semester with the Provost.

The Cultural Event Programming Advisory Councils (CEPAC, one on each campus) consist of volunteer faculty, professional administrative staff, members of the Union, and students from each of the University’s campuses, who will work with campus community members to develop, plan, and implement cultural events for their respective communities. The chair of each CEPAC will be appointed by the Provost or the Provost’s designee from among the volunteers on each campus, in consultation with the members of the given council and others on the given campus, for a term of one year, renewable. The chairs of the CEPACS meet once a semester together with the Provost. At the request of the Vice President for Advancement, the Cultural Event Programming Advisory Councils will collaborate with the office of the Vice President for Advancement regarding events that that office wishes to run on any of our campuses.

The Diversity, Equity, Belonging, Inclusion, and Access Council (DEBIA Council) consists of faculty, professional administrative staff, members of the Union, and students from each of the University’s campuses to recognize, celebrate, and enhance diversity in our campus communities; identify inequities that may exist on any of our campuses and recommend policies to address them;  monitor and improve campus climate to promote a sense of belonging and inclusion for all students, faculty, and staff; and review obstacles to access to University services and opportunities for all students, faculty, and staff and to recommend strategies to enhance access. The co-chairs of the DEBIA Council are the Provost or the Provost’s Designee and the Vice President for Student Affairs or the VPSA’s Designee.