Bucknell University
PA-3: Participatory Governance

Bucknell Student Government is a body of elected undergraduate students charged with representing the general student body in University affairs. Their purpose is: To provide a forum for Bucknell students' concerns, interests, and opinions; To provide a means of communicating those sentiments to the University faculty, staff, and administration; To serve as an agent for improving academic policies, campus life, community relations, diversity awareness, event publicity, and social welfare; To provide activities and services to promote class unity, identity, and spirit, and to justly represent the interests and welfare of class constituencies as a whole; and To officially recognize student organizations and allocate funding from the Student Activities Fee to them.

The University provides opportunities for staff members to participate in the exchange of information concerning all aspects of the campus community. Listed are several of those opportunities. There are two personnel committees, that regular members of the staff can participate in, the APC and the SSPC. The Administrative Personnel Committee (APC) is a standing committee established to assist in the development or revision of personnel policies for the administrative staff. The Administrative Personnel Committee shall assist in promoting effective communication and discussion about personnel matters among administrative staff and the Office of the President. The six-member Committee serves in an advisory capacity to the President and the Operations and Management Group. The Support Staff Personnel Committee (SSPC) is a standing committee established to assist in the development or revision of personnel policies for all regular full-time and regular part-time members of the support staff, and to promote effective communication and discussion about personnel matters among the hourly staff. The six-member Committee serves in an advisory capacity to the President and the Operations and Management Group. p. 15 under information sharing -- administrative personnel committee, and support staff personnel committee. Each committee is made up of six staff members. Administrative staff are salary individuals. Support staff are the hourly individuals. Elections are held for those who serve in those roles, an advisory body. They can propose policies, make suggestions for changes, and bring forward new ideas. Mechanisms are the APC, the university staff forum, the coming together to get information about the university.

There is an elected Faculty Council (7 reps total). There are 35 administrative committees covering topics from Faculty governance, to reviewing staff/faculty wage increases and comprehensive fee changes, to recommending tenure, to overseeing athletics and student life issues. The Chair of Faculty, and Secretary of Faculty are invited to attend Board of Trustee meetings. See https://my.bucknell.edu/x54782.html for more details.

The CEO of Geisinger Health System is an Ad Hoc member of the Board of Trustees.

From Carol Kennedy The answer to the first question is yes -- The institution's teaching and research faculty have a representative body through with they can participate in governance. Since the affirmative response requires a brief explanation, I suggest the following statement in italics below. I went back to our most recent Middle States Self-Study report (2014) and used the language from that report as related to governance and administration of the University. I also referenced the Faculty Handbook. Bucknell's faculty is actively involved in formulating policies and establishing procedures through its participation on 14 standing committees and through monthly meetings for the whole faculty that are open to the Bucknell community. The Faculty Council is recognized as a quasi-executive committee for the faculty that is authorized to assist in communications between meetings with the administration, to help to establish long-term agenda items for the faculty to consider, and to act as a facilitative committee when matters fall between or span committee charters. The answer to the second question is no -- Do the institution’s teaching and research faculty have an elected representative on the institution’s highest governing body? I say "no" because there are not elected faculty representatives serving on the Board of Trustees (our highest governing body). Because it is not a "yes" response, I do not think you are required to provide a further response. However, I wonder if it would be helpful to share the following (as summarized from the Middle States Self-Study Report): When issues before the Board of Trustees involve faculty concern or prerogative, the board involves and consults with faculty at multiple levels. For instance, the Chair and Secretary of the faculty attend Board meetings as guests, and other faculty are elected to serve as non-voting representatives to board committees including Finance, Academic Affairs, Student Life and Advancement. Additionally, because the faculty and administration work together closely in the system of shared governance, the faculty has opportunities to present initiatives and requests to the board through the University administration, specifically the Provost.