USVI Public Records

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87 THE COMMITTEE SYSTEM OF THE COLLEGE (Board of Trustees Meeting, June 29, 1975) The Board turned next to a report concerning the committee system of the College. The President indicated that the American Association of University Professors chapter of the College had proposed that the Committee on Committees of the College be recon- stituted and brought under the control of the. teaching faculty. The Committee on Committees is responsible for designating the members of the college-wide standing committees of the College, and it is presently composed of two elected faculty members, the Provost and Dean of the College, and the President. (The President of the Student Association participates in the meetings in choosing student members of the College's standing committeese) The AAUP chapter also proposed that the standing committees of the College report directly to the faculty. One provision of their proposal stated that the President or the Provost and Dean of the College may request consideration of pertinent topics by a standing committee but shall do so through the faculty. The AAUP proposal further provided for by-passing the Divisional Council of the College and the Administrative Council of the College, if these bodies did not act within a period of 30 days on matters referred to them by standing committees of the College. Additional provisions of a similar nature were contained in the proposal. In discussing this AAUP proposal at this meeting of the Board of Trustees, several objections were raised. The objections which were made can be summarized as follows: 1. 36 The proposal constituted a thinly disguised effort on behalf of some members of the teaching faculty to take authority for the College's affairs into their own hands and in so doing to lessen substantially the authority of the administrative officers of the College and of the Board of Trustees. The question of lessening the responsibilities of the administrative officers and the Board of Trustees, however, was not similarly addressed. It undermined the concept of College-wide standing committees, representing the several sectors of the College, and attempted to substitute the teaching faculty, only part of the total College, in place of other elements such as students and staff members. And by attempting to reorder reporting lines, it also undermined the work of the Divisional Council and the Administrative Council, which was constitutionally of importance, The AAUP proposals were not supported by the Board of Trustees. 88