Representation (2011 Strategic Plan)

The Governance Subcommittee of the Strategic Planning Committee underscores the value of representation as outlined in the GTF report and as supported by the section below titled Community Participation. Hampshire’s core values hold that our community will be democratic, collaborative, and respectful. To live up to these values we recommend the following:

• We are committed to providing representation from faculty staff, students, and administration on all major campus-wide committees.

• Although the appropriate method of determining committee membership is different from case to case, we believe that major campus-wide committees should have either open membership or elections for members of each constituency. (This is an area where the SPC governance subcommittee and the GTF came to somewhat different conclusions—see recommendations regarding presidential committees in the GTF report. The implementation groups will address this.)

• While it is often appropriate to have appointed members on committees, these members do not constitute representation of a constituency.

• We acknowledge and address the inherently uneven power dynamics between administrators, faculty, staff, and students both inside of committees and when making policy.

• We acknowledge and address issues of identity and privilege on campus as they relate to representation and governance. We are committed to ensuring that all groups have their voices heard and their interests represented in governance processes.

• We will have standardized process guidelines and expectations for elections. These guidelines will address necessary outreach to the relevant constituency, candidates’ written statements, timeline expectations, and other issues.

Comments
Please include your thoughts on the importance of the initiative, how to frame the issue, things that may be missing, and any additional comments here (you can do so by logging into Hampedia and clicking edit):


 * I agree with all of the points listed. I also think this is better than the GTF's conclusions about determining committee membership. I also think that the fourth and fifth points about power dynamics are extremely important should not get lost in the shuffle during implementation. Also, standardizing election procedures is a great idea and needs to happen ASAP. - Alynda Wood, Student
 * These are solid goals to have. From being a student liason to the Staff Advocacy Committee this semester, I have seen how staff are genuinely interested in participating in college governance etc. as well as how they are genuinely having a hard time fitting it into our schedules. Granted, any representative to committees from staff, faculty, or student constituencies would be adding a little bit more to their plate which can be challenging, but I really think that staff participation needs to be taken seriously and SUPPORTED. Currently the SAC has no representative from the Blair Hall area of campus (also, redistricting of SAC could improve things if SAC is remain an aspect of college governance) and when Shelly Ruocco found this out a month ago, she was surprised and a little disappointed...yet it hasn't changed. Staff time on committees needs to be seriously valued or else we relegate a constituency to a half-voice.   -Jaymes Winell, student
 * To add on to what Jaymes said, staff members while told that they can/should participate in committees like SAC, and while they are paid for their time, are given the same workload as if they did not participate. The end result is staff being discouraged from participating by being overworked/not having the time to both do their jobs and join SAC. -Henry Sanford, student
 * Excellent platform of goals! Props to my fellow students above! Josh Gannon-Salomon
 * I like this section! I think it provides a really good basis to help Hampshire start to improve its governance processes. I totally agree with the SPC about how committee membership should be determined. One thing I would like to note, though, is that nowhere in this section does it address the issue of who gets to make certain decisions and why. Often important decisions are not even made by these major committees, and I would like to encourage that we develop clear guidelines for when that is acceptable so that the decision of the President or the Board is not longer the default. Claire Oberholtzer, student F07
 * Yes!! Real representation for faculty,staff and students!  Katie Culpepper
 * I really support everything in this section, especially the commitment to having either elections or open membership for all major committees- but I would like to see a statement of what constitutes a major, campus-wide committee. -Vanessa Bellini, Student
 * The points listed in this initiative are critical to improving the practice of Shared Governance at Hampshire. If action is not taken to actualize this initiative, none of the problems with governance at Hampshire, as outlined in the Governance Task Force Report, can be adequately addressed. Representation is critical in major campus wide decisions; I fully support the proposal in this initiative for committee membership. I hope work will begin to implement the proposals in this initiative as soon as possible. - Sarah Gordon, student F09
 * Outside of the Hampshire bubble, we'd refer to this as "stakeholder representation." Any student of organizational development knows that having all the stakeholders participate in decisions is key to the success of implementation of a decision. The problem is the definition of "stakeholder." I truly hope that one day it will be abundantly clear to all Hampshire administrators, trustees, and faculty that staff and students are equally important stakeholders, and giving them meaningful representation is not a political concession but in fact an integral part of an optimally-functioning institution. - Ananda Valenzuela