Committee Structure

Committee participation has traditionally been a duty of college faculty and staff, with committees reconstituted each fall. Many administrators, faculty and staff serve on more than one committee. Prior to the creation of the Operational Planning and Improvement System, most committees operated independently of the others. The learning college model's impact is primarily reflected in the seven standing committees, where new committees, vital to strategic planning and assessment were created and existing standing committees were combined or given new charges. Few changes occurred in the special focus committees, which come together on an ad hoc basis to accomplish very specific tasks.

Standing Committees

All of the existing committees (see Illustration 3) were integrated into the system of the Organizational Planning and Improvement System Chart and were provided charges that document the required procedures, membership, duties and timelines. Reference (See a sample of a typical charge in Illustration 4.) In addition to some alteration of committees, such as Curriculum, Policy and Faculty Development, three completely new committees were created.

Illustration 4
Illustration 4: Sample Committee Charge

Committee charges ( see Appendix E) were presented to the faculty in the fall of 2004 as proposals, and several were modified as a result of input from faculty and staff. The committees related to academic assessment are described in more detail in Chapter 3. Another, the Organizational Planning and Improvement Committee (OPIC), provides the vital coordination between data and strategic planning from several sources, most notably from academic assessment. Its specific duties, as well as those of the internal and external review team subcommittees, are provided in more detail in Chapter 2. OPIC's importance to the learning college model is its central position in the decision-making process and its broad-based representation, designed to use shared governance to guide the College through the strategic planning process.

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