Committee on Committees
Committee Guide Addendum
The primary duties of the Committee on Committees are listed in Article VII. Committees, Section 8, item # 2 of the Bylaws. This information is provided on the C on C website underneath the list of members and therefore is not repeated here.
I. Communication with Faculty
All emails that need to be sent to all faculty members can only be done by the Committee on Committee email address. Simply type in QCC Faculty. As of the 2022-2023 academic year, QCC Faculty doesn’t include the email addresses of HEOs and CLTs.
II. Timeline
At the start of the Fall Academic Year, the Committee on Committees should receive from the Steering Committee its charges. The chair may want to schedule a meeting in September to discuss with the full C on C membership how best to accomplish those charges within the academic year.
The chair should assign each C on C member 2 to 3 committees in which to serve as liaison. What this liaison member will need to do is be in contact with the chairs/secretaries of those committees and advise the committees to be certain their websites are up to date with the following: (1) accurate list of members with terms, (2) set meeting time and dates, and 3) agendas, minutes, and addendum posted. The liaison will also want to emphasize that the chair and/or secretary should notify them if any vacancies occur on their committee so that the C on C may fill those vacancies in a timely manner.
Mid-January, perhaps a week after the start of the semester, send out an email to faculty members asking them to think about serving on academic senate committees.
In late-January, the chair and/or the full committee should meet with Rajesh Vaswani with the Office of Information Technology, to coordinate what faculty should receive preference links. The preference link email should go to all faculty who are not currently on a committee, and all faculty whose three-year term is ending, to give them an opportunity to volunteer for another committee. The C of C may also want to develop a form for those faculty members to complete to explain their reasons for wanting to serve another 3-year term on the same committee. During the Spring 2023 semester, the link was not sent to CLIP or CUNY Start faculty. The chair of the C on C during that semester sent individual emails to those faculty asking them to respond with their top three choices for senate committees. However it's accomplished, CUNY Start and CLIP faculty should be included.
Each committee has membership numbers that are divisible by three. Some committees have nine members, some six. Each year, one third of the members of any committee will have three-year terms that are expiring. Take care to make sure that each committee gets one third new members (some of whom may be old members allowed to serve another three-year term under extraordinary circumstances -- use form discussed above to ascertain why they need to stay).
During the first or second week of February, the preference link to all faculty will be sent by the Office of Information Technology using either the chair of the C on C email address or the C on C email address.
Mid-February, preferably the third week, the C on C should meet to make suggestions for the standing committees. In the past, the chair alone, has done this work, but the C of C may want to figure a way that all 9 committee members can assist. This nomination process should be completed at least 4 weeks before the April Senate meeting because the Ballots of Nominees must be sent to all faculty members by C on C two weeks before the April meeting, per Senate Bylaws.
Two weeks before the April Senate Meeting, send the final ballots to the Secretary of the Steering Committee. Be sure to check for accuracy: spelling of names, titles, departments, and so on. Email the final ballot to everyone who received the above preference link.
After the Senate has met and approved the ballots at its April meeting, emails should be sent to all members on standing committees who terms have expired thanking them for their service and emails should be sent to all incoming members. Templates for both of these emails are available on the C on C webpage.
Early March, the C on C should work with the Steering Committee of the Academic Senate to prepare for the elections for the Academic Senate. Most of this work will be done by the Academic Senate; however, the C on C should work closely with them to make sure it runs smoothly. The C on C may be asked to check on the Academic Senate page to determine how many terms are expiring in April. There can be no more than 4 Faculty Members at Large (FMAL) plus the Chair of their respective department.
After the elections for FMAL has concluded, emails should be sent out to incoming senators congratulating them on their election to the Academic Senate and notifying them to access the Senate webpage and attend the upcoming Senate meeting. A template for this email is available on the C on C webpage.
After the April Senate Meeting, nominations for the next three-year terms of the C of C need to be solicited. Only 1 member per department is allowed on the C of C, so nominations for incoming members must be from members whose departments are not already represented. The chair of the member’s department should nominate them during the May Senate meeting in which the FMAL will vote.
Prepare a Monthly Report for the May Senate meeting that includes the results of the Senate elections, and the rosters for all committees
The final C of C meeting of the academic year should be conducted in May after the new C on C members have been elected. This meeting will include both those members whose terms are expiring as well as the newly appointed members. At this meeting, elections for the chair and secretary of the C of C for the next academic year should be held. Those members whose terms are expiring may not vote for the new chair/secretary.
III. Duties of Chair and Secretary
A. The chair should do the following:
1. Set Agendas and Schedule Meetings
2. Write monthly reports detailing any significant actions of the C on C
3. Keep a record of C on C members who have gone above and beyond
4. Keep a record of C on C members who are inactive (e.g. do not
attend meetings and/or do not actively participate in C on C business)
5. Upload to Cascade Agendas, Monthly Reports, and the Annual Report
6. Attend the Academic Senate Meetings each month
7. Update central committee rosters page on Cascade when there are any changes in any committee membership
B. The secretary should do the following:
1. Assist the chair
2. Take Minutes for all C on C meetings
3. Upload Minutes for all C on C meetings to Cascade
4. Update central committee rosters page on Cascade when there are any changes in any committee membership
IV. Accessing Cascade
The chair and secretary should contact the Chair of the Academic Senate to gain access to Cascade. Additionally, the chair and secretary should set up a meeting with the chair and/or watch the tutorial videos on using Cascade which can be found on the Steering Committee page.
