G-6-0 Committee Structure
Central Oregon Community College values shared governance. Shared governance entails full and active participation by faculty, administrators, staff, and students, who share responsibility as equal stakeholders for the mission, vision, goals, academic integrity, and institutional sustainability of the College. This mutual responsibility requires that stakeholders engage in free and open discussion, join in collaborative decision- making, and mutually inform one another of resolutions.
College committees have been established to implement present policies and procedures and to plan for the future. Committee members, consisting of elected or appointed members from the various areas on campus, collaborate in the decision-making process on broad curricular, academic, and policy issues.
Some primary responsibilities for implementation and decision-making reside with particular stakeholders. The guiding principle is that institutional policy making is done in collegial collaboration with respective college stakeholders and their representatives.
Shared governance requires all such decisions be communicated effectively to the general college community, with special emphasis on the need for accountability with timely, reasoned explanations for any modification or rejection of recommendations. For specific language on the approval process refer to G-6-1.3.
In order to be effective, shared governance requires respect for the process and all participants, open communication, and a mutual basis of trust that enables all to express their views freely with the expectation that their contributions will carry weight in the decision-making process.
The College uses a number of different kinds of committees to carry out its work. When applied to a committee, the term "College," in most cases, implies that the committee has broad representation from a number of groups within the College and has required broad-based agreements in defining the functions of the committee.
The College has three types of committees:
- Policy: Committees with the authority to recommend policy, within their scope of responsibility, to the President.
- Advisory: Committees which provide guidance and recommendations to a specific entity of the College.
- Administrative: Committees responsible for various aspects of day-to-day administration of College policy and practice, albeit instructional, administrative or other focus.
In addition to "College" committees, other committees may be established by organizations within the College. The Faculty Forum, Classified Association and the Associated Students of Central Oregon Community College establish committees for their own purposes. These committees should have a designation other than "College" within their titles, such as:
"Student Government Committee on"
"Faculty Forum Committee on"
These non-college committees report to the organization which creates them and are answerable to the creating organization.