GENERAL UNIVERSITY GOVERNANCE

By charter, the governance of Hamline University rests with the Board of Trustees. The board delegates certain responsibilities to the president. Day-to-day management is the responsibility of the president, president’s staff, and the president’s cabinet. The intent of the governance structure described below is to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to express his or her opinions, concerns, and ideas. The University Council and its standing and ad hoc university-wide committees, described below, are an important advisory and communications body that provides counsel and guidance in decision-making and actions throughout the University.

As members of the Hamline community, students are free, individually and collectively, to express their views on university policy and on issues of interest to them. Hamline students may exercise this right through a variety of channels:

1. By participating in or seeking, through appropriate means, to influence decisions of faculty-student committees or the University Council;

2. By participating in or seeking, through appropriate means, to influence residence hall governments and/or the student governments;

3. By conference with any member of the University concerned with the issue of interest to the student;

4. By speaking in public forums or through the medium of University publications. The nature and degree of student involvement in university decision-making is under continuing review, with the goal of designing and implementing increasingly effective procedures for broad participation. Students have the responsibility, in seeking to influence decisions concerning community life, to become accurately informed on the issues, to avoid deception or misinformation, to avoid coercion of others, and to seek to further the welfare of the entire community.

 

UNIVERSITY COUNCIL

The University Council is not a decision-making body. Rather, it functions as a forum for interaction on a regular basis by elected members of the University. It is an area for the discussion of ongoing issues of concern and opportunity to multiple units of the university or the university as a whole.

The University Council meets regularly during the academic year, and provisions are made for the continuing availability of some members of the Council to meet during the summer months. The Council’s goal is to ensure timely and accurate information about planning and decision-making processes as they occur.

MEMBERSHIP

Names of this year’s University Council members will be published in the Oracle, Dicta and Inside Hamline when available.

Faculty (9)

College of Liberal Arts (4)

School of Law (2)

Graduate School of Education (1)

Graduate School of Management (1)

Graduate School of Liberal Studies (1)

Staff (8)

Exempt (4)

Nonexempt (4)

Students (9)

College of Liberal Arts (4)

School of Law (2)

Graduate School of Education (1)

Graduate School of Management (1)

Graduate School of Liberal Studies (1)

Ex Officio Members (11)

Dean, College of Liberal Arts

Dean, School of Law

Dean, Graduate School of Education

Dean, Graduate School of Management

Dean, Graduate School of Liberal Studies

Chaplain

V.P., Academic Affairs

V.P., Finance

V.P., University Relations

Dean of Students

Chief of Staff to President

Each member group has the right to determine how its representatives are selected, their term of service, and the means by which these representatives will communicate with their group.

 

FUNCTION

The University Council:

1.  Monitors the application of the “Guiding Principles for Decision-Making”:

A. Consultation

Each decision-maker, whether an individual or a committee, should systematically determine which groups or persons are likely to be most affected by an issue and decision.

   • Use consultation in a timely manner; meaning from the beginning of the process of decision-making.

   • Review the Decision Checklist point by point, and consult those groups or

persons who will be most affected.

   • Return to those consulted to explain what was done with their input.

B. Representation

Committee meetings are not always necessary. If one is needed, however, committee members should, whenever possible, be selected (appointed or elected) from a list proposed by the constituent groups. Committee members should individually:

   • Regularly report to, and get feedback from their constituency, and facilitate productive discussion and resolution of difficult issues.

   • Accept responsibility for their part in the committee’s decision, and work to implement that decision.

   • Make sure all constituent views are presented.

C. Communication

For complex issues that affect more than one group, communication is critical. Using Inside Hamline (faculty, staff), Oracle (CLA students), Dicta (law students), voice-mail and e-mail, a decision-maker or committee should:

2.  Inform itself and its constituencies of current and potential issues and decisions affecting multiple units or segments of the University;

3.  Serve as an advisory group to the President and the President’s Cabinet on special matters of University-wide concern;

4.  Oversee the functioning of the university-wide standing and ad hoc committees, i.e., to approve and, in some cases, initiate the formation of ad hoc committees; to receive reports and approve recommendations from university-wide standing and ad hoc committees; and to refer these reports and recommendations to their appropriate destinations;

5.  Oversee a University Ombuds program available to all individual members of the University community, i.e., to arrange for the election of two University ombudspersons; and to receive from the ombudspersons pertinent recommendations relative to governance;

6.  Serve as an “appeals body” for groups claiming violations of the “Guiding Principles for Decision-Making” and, in the case of serious violations, to recommend to the President that the decision-making process be reopened.