The Academic Advisory Committee (AAC) will address university-wide academic planning, policy, and implementation issues. Meeting monthly, the AAC will be made up of faculty members, deans, and academic administrators.
It is the policy of the Board of Trustees, in matters of academic policy, that the Faculty, as “steward of the academic environment, will play a central role in the development of the University’s intellectual direction, university-wide standards and structures.”
Guiding Principles
This problem-solving advisory committee does not determine academic policy but develops recommendations about academic planning and policy implementation. The recommendations will be forwarded to appropriate groups for consideration, including Faculty Assembly, programs, schools, and curriculum committees. The committee makes recommendations to the Provost.
This committee serves to direct and gather academic matters to one deliberative, collective forum. This committee will exclusively create any cross-university working groups that address academic policy or procedure issues. Faculty Assembly via the Faculty Affairs and Academic Policy (FAAP) Committee will select faculty participating in such sub-committees and working groups, and the Provost will select non-faculty participants. The Provost will inform this committee of any additional working groups that are developed to address administrative issues related to academic concerns. This committee will review faculty membership and make recommendations if necessary. Such groups will provide regular reports to AAC.
Guiding principles for the AAC include: Commitment to ensuring quality academic programs and policies; collaboration on establishing agendas; effective communication to the entire University; inclusiveness and an open-meeting policy; clarity of process for informing, advising or directing actions and outcomes; deliberative processes with sufficient time for review of complex issues; consolidation of existing committees and task forces to reduce redundancy; transparency, accountability, and shared trust. The committee deliberates and makes policy recommendations by general consensus.
Areas of Responsibility
The AAC will formulate recommendations as well as assume responsibility for the work generated by the agenda. The AAC will address a broad array of university-wide academic planning, policy, and implementation issues and will make recommendations regarding those issues. Any issue that has an impact upon academic policy or delivery of instruction will be brought to the committee for consideration. Issues as diverse as technologies that support instruction or planning and implementation policies of new programs would fall within the purview of the AAC.
FAAP is a standing committee of Faculty Assembly and, therefore, FAAP representatives can bring necessary AAC items to Faculty Assembly, school representatives can bring AAC items to school meetings, and administrators and staff can bring AAC items back to their appropriate venues. AAC will have a report-out as a standing item on the University Council’s agenda. AAC will thereby be in communication with Faculty Assembly, the schools, and the University Council.
Membership
Membership will include 11 faculty members and 9 administrators: Faculty membership will include the 6 members of FAAP (representing each of the 4 schools and elected to staggered two-year terms), 4 Faculty with administrative responsibilities (representing each of the 4 schools), and the Dean of Faculty. Academic administrative members will include the 4 School Deans, undergraduate professional advisor and graduate professional advisor, Vice President of Enrollment Management, Associate Provost, and the Provost. Other members of the community will be consulted in deliberations as needed. The chair of FAAP and the Provost serve as the co-chairs of AAC and will facilitate the agenda at meetings. The faculty chair will receive one workload unit release.
Agenda Committee of the Academic Advisory Committee
The Agenda Committee will consist of the Chair of FAAP, the Provost, one faculty, and one non-faculty member from the AAC, chosen by the AAC.
The Agenda Committee meets monthly, and in May of each year the Committee will seek to establish the key agenda items for the forthcoming academic year, along with timelines for those items needing on-going attention. At monthly meetings, new items will be considered as these come forward.
Requests for consideration of agenda can come from any member of the Lesley community and will be addressed at the monthly meeting of the Agenda Committee. All requested agenda should include identification of action being requested: recommendation, advice, or information sharing.
A response will be made within one month of Agenda Committee consideration, indicating if and when the item will be discussed at a subsequent meeting or, if not, where the item should go to be addressed appropriately.
AAC agenda are considered public documents and will be distributed at-large at least one week prior to committee meetings.
Communication
Agenda and minutes will be public and posted on MyLesley and/or the designated intra-net webpage.
Meetings will be open and visitors will be encouraged to raise questions or comments.
The AAC will call a closed session when the agenda dictates a confidential discussion by its members.
Committees and Task Forces
When agenda items require research or further discussion and deliberation beyond the expertise or time constraints of the AAC, a sub-committee or task force may be established by the AAC. All committees and working groups investigating academic issues will be created by and serve as sub-committees of the AAC. Such committees and task forces will include members of the AAC and any additional members from the Lesley community as seems appropriate to the matter under consideration. These working bodies will report back to the AAC.
Periodic Review
As stated in the NEASC Standards, “The institution periodically evaluates the effectiveness of its system of governance using the results for its improvement.” Therefore, both FAAP and the Provost should undertake a yearly review each spring to assess the effectiveness of the AAC, as should the committee itself. Suggested improvements in procedures should be presented at the May meeting of the AAC.