Lafayette College
PA-3: Governance

Lafayette College has an online, open election every fall semester to decide who from the student body becomes president, vice president, and the 15 representatives for the upcoming year.

Students from the general student body submit applications to serve on Faculty Committees and Trustee Committees annually. The Vice President compiles this list and gives his/her recommendations to the appropriate chairs. Regular Representatives (elected) are also appointed to a multitude of governing bodies, both faculty and trustee.

Establishing organization mission, etc.: Students have input on the College's mission through both student representatives on both Faculty and Trustee meetings as well as Student Government's formal and informal meetings with the Trustees, Faculty, and Administration. Student Government Representatives had significant input with the recent President Task Forces examining at enrollment size, which challenged the College to examine it's mission and how it'd be affected by altering enrollment. Establishing new policies, etc.: Students have input on the College's programs and initiatives through both student representatives on both Faculty and Trustee meetings as well as Student Government's formal and informal meetings with the Trustees, Faculty, and Administration. Three years ago, Student Government's approval was needed to codify language in the Student Handbook that banned unrecognized Greek organizations from campus. Student Government has also had significant involvement (mainly through chairing the respective committees) in the new Greek Recognition Process, Connected Communities Initiative, and Laf360 Initiative. Strategic and long-term planning: The Student Government President meets regularly with the Trustees (through his/her position as Board Associate) and the President of the College, in which issues falling under this category are frequently discussed. Student Government has also had significant involvement (mainly through chairing the respective committees) in the new Greek Recognition Process, Connected Communities Initiative, and Laf360 Initiative. Existing or prospective physical resources: Students have input on the College's use of space through both student representatives on both Faculty and Trustee meetings as well as Student Government's formal and informal meetings with the Trustees, Faculty, and Administration. Most recently, Student Government gave feedback on the proposed renovations to a dining hall; before that, Student Government had given feedback regarding renovation of other spaces, such as the Student Center, to the appropriate governing bodies. Budgeting, staffing, and financial planning: The Student Government President meets regularly with the Trustees (through his/her position as Board Associate) and the President of the College, in which issues falling under this category are frequently discussed. Further, student representatives serve on the Trustee Finance Committee. E.g., students had a voice in the creation of the Capital Campaign. Communications processes and transparency practices: The Student Government President meets regularly with the Trustees (through his/her position as Board Associate) and the President of the College, in which issues falling under this category are frequently discussed. Title XI disclosures and Cleary Act Notices were deliberated with the input of the Student Government President. Prioritization of programs and projects: Student Government representatives meet with regularly with a variety of different administrators and give them a sense of what is most needed by the students at any given time. Recent examples of this are the adoption of a mobile app for campus and the Greek Recognition Process.

All faculty at Lafayette are invited to monthly meetings of the faculty, where business is conducted following parliamentary procedure. However, while all faculty are invited to attend, only non-visiting Instructors, Assistant Professors, Associate Professors, Professors, and Librarians with professional status may vote. Further, those faculty have the right to speak repeatedly to an issue, a right not extended to other attendees of the meetings (though in practice this right has been offered to all in attendance). So, while all faculty may _attend_ these meetings, adjuncts and visitors may not vote at them, and in practice they rarely actually attend.

The College’s governing body is the Board of Trustees. The Board meets in committees, and most committees (all except the Executive, Steering, Audit, and Compensation Committees) have faculty representatives that are elected by the restricted body of faculty mentioned above. Further, that same restricted body of faculty elects the Clerk of the Faculty, who is able to go any committee meeting s/he chooses, and sits in the meeting of the full Board at the table. (The other faculty members present, the Provost and Deans, are seated behind the table with other administrators and so are less fully incorporated in the discussion.) However no faculty, elected or non-elected, have any vote in the Board’s decisions. So the faculty representation on the Board is analogous to the representation of visiting and part-time faculty in the faculty’s governing body. They have the power of persuasion only. In fairness, the faculty are much more engaged in the Board’s meetings, and so in practice they offer far more input than the non-tenure-track faculty do in faculty meetings.

The faculty has a committee structure that allows it to interact with the administration on all of these fronts. For special initiatives, like the creation of strategic plans, it is typical for the faculty to be solicited to create ad hoc committees or to provide representatives to all-campus committees. For instance, when the college did its search for a new President, an all-college committee included a couple of faculty elected (as usual by the tenure-track faculty) to represent them. Among faculty committees, the most important for these matters is the Faculty Academic Policy Committee (known as FAP) that meets twice a month (twice as often as most committees). You can learn more about its responsibilities, and those of all faculty committees in the Faculty Handbook, publicly available at http://provost.lafayette.edu/files/2015/02/2014-15-Faculty-Handbook.pdf in section 5.4.3 (starting on page 67) there is an exhaustive description of the faculty committee structure, including the responsibilities of all the committees. If you are interested in the details of the distribution of the itemized responsibilities, in addition to FAP (5.4.3.8), I suggest that you read about the Athletics Committee (5.4.3.4), Diversity Committee (5.4.3.6), Enrollment Planning Committee (5.4.3.7), Faculty Compensation Committee (5.4.3.9), Student Life Committee (5.4.3.15), and the Retirement Committee (5.4.4.1). I believe that you will find all of the items mentioned above addressed in detail with the exception of “Communications” and “transparency.” In practice, these are dealt with primarily by FAP, although the Enrollment Planning Committee has worked with the administration on the representation of the college to prospective students (meaning primarily the college’s web site to the extent that it is used to recruit prospective students).