Campus Council

CAMPUS COUNCIL MEMORANDUM*

Preamble

Recognizing that The College of Wooster is a community of Administration, Faculty, Students, and Trustees working toward common goals at a private church-related liberal arts college dedicated to freedom of academic inquiry, this memorandum is hereby adopted as an instrument designed (1) to support and forward Wooster’s commitment to intellectual growth through liberal education; (2) to promote the welfare of all members and organizations of the College; and (3) to establish means through which students, faculty, and administrative officers can express their views and better understand the opinions of others. In order to implement these purposes, there shall be created a Campus Council which shall join in its membership administration, faculty, and students to legislate in the areas of student life and extracurricular affairs and to issue advisory opinions and make recommendations to the President of the College, the Board of Trustees, and other organizations.

I. Name

The name of this organization shall be the Campus Council of The College of Wooster.

II. Powers

A. The Council shall have unlimited power to initiate, discuss, and formulate recommendations on any matters it deems appropriate and to submit these recommendations to the appropriate campus body including the President and the Board of Trustees.

B. The Council shall have authority to legislate with regard to social regulations, social functions, student conduct, student activities, and chartered organizations.

C. The Council shall distribute each year the funds allocated to it by the College. Any chartered organization is eligible to apply for funding, unless stipulated otherwise in the organization's charter. Specific budget guidelines are to be found in the Campus Council By-laws.

D. The Council shall be responsible for the chartering and recognition of campus groups. The group applying for a charter shall submit a written constitution to the Council for approval. Each new charter shall be valid for three years from the date of chartering. Existing charters are subject to review and renewal every three years. The Campus Council shall either (1) continue the charter; (2) ask that revisions be made in the charter, at which time it shall be continued; or (3) terminate the charter. The Council shall be responsible for seeing that organizations abide by their charters and reserves the right to terminate at any time the charter of an organization found in violation of its own charter.

E. The Council may initiate recommendations on academic matters by forwarding such recommendations to the Dean of the Faculty for his or her action where appropriate or for referral to the appropriate faculty committee. If the faculty committee does not issue a report on the Council's recommendations within a reasonable period of time or the committee rejects the Council's recommendations, then the Council may request the Dean to place the recommendation directly on the next faculty agenda for consideration of the faculty.

F. The Council may act in an advisory capacity on any matter which has been submitted to the Council for consideration.

G. Any group or individual member of the campus community may petition the Council on matters within the Council's jurisdiction. The Council shall not interfere in decisions reached by Judicial Board, but this limitation shall not preclude the Council from reviewing and legislating changes in the existing judicial systems which come within the Council's jurisdiction.

H. A committee, composed of the chairperson and at least one member of each constituency (students, faculty and administration), shall meet with the President of the College every three weeks, or as deemed necessary, to discuss matters before the Council.

I. The Council shall have authority to delegate the execution of its policy to appropriate agencies of the campus community.

J. The decisions of the Campus Council will become effective within a reasonable time after enactment unless the President or his/her representative informs the Council that the President wishes to consider the matter further. The President shall have thirty school term days to consider the decision (including proposed amendments to this memorandum) beginning the day on which the President is notified of the decision. The President may pursue any of the following courses of action:

·  (1) Inform Council that he/she has approved the decision.

·  (2) Inform Council that he/she is holding the matter for consideration by the Trustees at the earliest opportunity.

·  (3) Recommend modifications in the decision to the Campus Council for their further deliberation. Upon reconsideration of the modifications, Council may adopt them, modify them further, or reject them. In the last two cases, the President shall have an additional fifteen school term days to consider the matter.

·  (4) Inform the Council that he/she is vetoing the decision in which case the Campus Council may, by two-thirds vote of the entire membership, submit the decision to the Board of Trustees or its appropriate committee at the next opportunity.

K. Should a student feel that he/she has a grievance outside the jurisdiction of the Committee on Academic Standards and/or the Judicial Board and has failed to receive any satisfaction through the normal administrative channel, he/she may request action to be taken by Campus Council.

Council may choose to elect a Councilperson to serve as ombudsperson. The ombudsperson's function will be to attempt to resolve the grievance and to advise the Chairperson of Campus Council of the action taken. Whether or not the ombudsperson procedure is used, Council may elect a special Grievance Review Committee. If Council votes to establish such a committee, each party to the dispute may select one member of the campus community to sit with the Committee to represent each party (but not to vote). The Grievance Committee itself shall consist of five members, elected by Council, with each party to the dispute having the right to peremptory challenge of one member. One of the five members of the Committee shall be a Council member elected to act as Chairperson of the Committee.

The functions of the Committee will be to hear all sides of the matter in dispute and, if it decides, to produce a written report of their conclusions which shall then be submitted to the President. Upon submitting their report, the Grievance Review Committee will meet with the President for a final discussion of the matter. In those instances where the President may not agree with or accept the Committee's judgment, he/she will submit a written explanation of the decision to all parties involved, including the Chairperson of Campus Council. Presidential decision in the matter will be final.

L. In connection with the foregoing powers, the Council may appoint committees to accomplish its purposes and invite members of the campus community to participate as nonvoting members in the proceedings of the Council. The Council may utilize administration, faculty, and students of the campus community to provide information and may use these groups to gather opinions and suggestions from constituent members.

M. The Council shall maintain at all times a Budget Committee which shall be responsible for all budgetary concerns related to the total allocation for all chartered organizations. The specific duties of the committee are outlined in the Campus Council By-laws.

N. The powers herein granted to the Campus Council are not intended and shall not be construed to be in derogation of the inherent powers of the Board of Trustees or the President.

III. Membership

In order to ensure the effectiveness of its deliberations, the total membership of Council shall not exceed eighteen voting members and one non-voting member. The current membership of Council is as follows:

A. Voting Members

(1) Students (ten)

·  a. The President of the Student Government Association or his/her representative.*

·  b. The Vice President for Student Affairs of the Student Government Association.

·  c. One representative to be chosen by the Inter-Greek Council.

·  d. The President of the Black Students Association or his/her representative.*

·  e. The President of the International Students Association or his/her representative.*

·  f. The President of the Student Activities Board or his/her representative.*

·  g. The President of the Wooster Volunteer Network or his/her representative.*

·  h. Three members-at-large elected to Campus Council by the student body in a general election during or before the ninth week of Semester II.

(2) Four members of the faculty elected by the faculty for a four-year term. Faculty members shall not succeed themselves.

(3) Administration

·  a. The Vice President for Academic Affairs, or his/her representative.*

·  b. The Dean of Students, or his/her representative.*

·  c. The Vice President for Finance and Business, or his/her representative.*

·  d. The Director of Lowry Center and Student Activities.

B. Non-voting member: a salaried position: Secretary - to be selected by a sub-committee of Council led by the Chairperson, with the approval of Campus Council.

C. If a vacancy shall occur on the Council, such vacancy shall be filled by appointment for the unexpired term - by the President to replace a Dean; by the Student Government Association to replace a student government representative or member-at-large; by the Black Students Association, International Students Association and the Student Activities Board to replace their respective representatives; and by the faculty to replace a faculty member.

D. The term of office for each member-at-large of Campus Council shall begin with the organizational meeting of Council and continue for one year.

E. The term of office for each faculty member of the Council shall be four years. The terms of new members shall begin the first day of Semester I and shall rotate so that ordinarily no more than one new member is appointed each year.

F. It is expected that all members of Council will be regular in their attendance at the meetings of Council. If on rare occasions it is necessary for a member of Council to be absent, he/she should notify the Chairperson of that fact and, where appropriate as stated above, identify the individual who will serve as the representative. If there are repeated absences, and the situation is not resolved after discussion between the Chair and the member, the Chair will then seek the assistance of the individual or group originally involved in the selection of the member - the President for an administrator, the Student Government Association for a student government representative or member at large, the Faculty Committee on Committees in the case of a faculty member, the Black Student Association, and the International Student Association.

G. The Chairperson of the Council shall be selected each year by a majority vote of the Council at an organizational meeting to be held at the end of Semester II which shall be chaired by the Vice President for Academic Affairs.

H. Student membership on Council shall consist of members elected at large or representatives of selected student organizations that have been chartered for at least five years. Student members (including the Campus Council members-at-large) may be removed from Council by their respective sponsor groups for negligence of their duties to their respective sponsor groups, subject to review by the Council.

IV. Procedures

A. A quorum shall consist of eight members: one member from each of the three groups must be present for the purpose of establishing a quorum. If there is no quorum, the Council shall be able to discuss matters, but shall not be able to vote. The Chair shall have a right to vote.

B. The agenda of each meeting shall be the responsibility of the Chairperson. Any member of the Council may place a matter on the agenda subject only to removal from the agenda by a majority vote of the Council.

C. All meetings of the Council shall follow parliamentary procedure. Executive session may be called by a majority vote of the Council. With the exception of amendments to the Memorandum (Section IV.F.), all decisions of the Council shall be by a majority vote.

D. The secretary, under the guidance of the Chairperson, shall submit to THE VOICE any decisions deemed relevant to the campus community. This shall be done within one week following the decision by Council. Any member of Council may request that this be done with any decision made by Council.

E. The President shall meet with Council at a mutually convenient time and only when deemed necessary by either party.

F. The Memorandum of Council shall be a continuing memorandum, subject to amendment by two-thirds of the Campus Council membership at such time as one or more of its constituencies (Faculty, Administration, President, Student Body, or Trustees) deem necessary. It may be subject to review and the approval of the President in accordance with Section II (J). The composition of the student membership shall be reviewed by Campus Council every third year beginning in 1981.

The By-laws shall consist of regulations/guidelines for the Budget Committee.