Department Governance

Let the Department Chair and Associate Director of Faculty Services know if you have items for discussion at an upcoming Department & Executive Committee meeting by the Monday prior at 11 a.m.

If an agenda item requires consideration by the Leadership Council, the Chair will call a Leadership Council vote or postpone action on the item until the following Department and Executive Committee Meeting.

Agenda items for department meetings commonly are brought forward by committees. Some items, most notably those involving commitment of department financial resources, may require prior action by the Leadership Council. Individuals are welcome to make suggestions for the department meeting, and such suggestions will be considered by the Chair.

If you have questions to be addressed at either the Department or Executive Committee meeting, please send them to the Chair and Associate Director of Faculty Services.  Time permitting, they will be addressed at the meeting.

This content was first published as A Message from the Chair (Judith N. Burstyn), April 2021 Badger Chemist News Alert.

One thing that makes our department unique is the ability of one person or group of people to recognize an issue or need and address it through a governance system. In many businesses or academic institutions, one person or a small group of people make decisions based on their limited knowledge and observations. In our department, we have a governance setup that can function to help turn one person’s idea into a plan or process improvement.

As you can see on the Department Governance page of our intranet, we are organized into a system of committees, which address a variety of needs – including everything from graduate admissions to facility decisions. Our committees include representation from graduate students, postdoctoral scientists, staff, and faculty. Though many companies and/or departments are guided only by a small group of people, we have the benefit of learning from many different perspectives.

You may notice that each committee is associated with a different operational component of the department. These components are the chair’s office, the research program, the graduate program, the undergraduate program, and department administration. Each committee is supported by the leader of that operational component, an associate chair or director. That leader represents the interests of the associated committees as part of the department Leadership Council, which means that the committees and all of the people who serve on them are closely linked to the high-level department decisions. For example, the associate chair for the Graduate Program supports the Graduate Program Oversight Committee, the Graduate Admissions Committee, and others.

You might think that the department chair makes all of the decisions, but in fact, the committees through the leadership team have a lot to do with the direction of the department. Here’s how that process might work:

• One person, with a suggestion, takes that idea to the appropriate committee.
• The committee discusses the idea and formulates a plan for implementation. That plan may include things like information on resources needed, how the change will affect others, and a timeline. The committee may vote to send the plan to their Leadership Council representative so that the leadership team sees it as an official proposal.
• The Leadership Council reviews the proposal and may send it back to the committee with advisement or move it forward to the department. If the proposal returns to the committee, the committee may address the leadership team’s concerns and answer questions, and resubmit the proposal.
• Proposals that move on to the department are presented, typically by a representative of the committee, for discussion at a department meeting, where everyone has the opportunity to address their concerns and ask questions. The proposal may be put up for a vote. If the department accepts the proposal, it may move to higher levels of administration, such as the College of Letters & Science for approval.

The length of the process required to move a proposal forward may be related to the resources needed to fulfill the objective. Proposals that cost a lot are likely to take longer and may not be possible to implement. The department has a fixed amount of money to fulfill its mission, with surprisingly little beyond that dedicated to paying the salaries of our many wonderful employees.

I encourage you to think creatively in solving department problems, work with the committees, associate chairs, and directors, and engage actively in department governance. There aren’t a lot of steps in bringing an idea from one person or group to the attention of department leadership. Our system is designed to incorporate as many voices as possible, allowing everyone the opportunity to play a role in the direction of the Department of Chemistry.