The Board of Trustees

The Bylaws of Wellesley College specify that the College "shall be governed by its Trustees" and that the President "shall have the general and active management, control and direction of the educational activities, business operations, and other affairs of the College." (See Wellesley College Bylaws, as revised, July, 1997.)

The Board decides on the number of Trustees, although there shall not be fewer than twenty nor more than thirty-five Trustees, including five alumnae Trustees and one faculty Trustee. The faculty Trustee is nominated by Academic Council, and is a person who holds an academic appointment at a college or university other than Wellesley College. Alumnae Trustees are nominated by the Alumnae Association.

The Board establishes the terms of office, which shall not exceed six years, except that the young alumna Trustee has a three-year term and is elected from the graduating class in the year of election. No Trustee may serve more than eighteen years.

The Board works through these committees: Executive, Nominating, Trusteeship, Audit, Finance, Investment, Compensation, Buildings and Grounds, Student Life, and the Trustee-Faculty Committee on Academic Affairs. The Nominating Committee (which includes two faculty and two student members) annually recommends members of the standing committees, including faculty and student members.

Faculty, Staff and Student Governance

Within the limits set by the Bylaws, Academic Council determines academic policy and makes rules for its own government. It has a general concern for the educational experience of students, establishes requirements for admission and degrees (subject to the approval of the Trustees) and approves courses of instruction. Membership in the Academic Council consists of the president, the faculty, such officers of the College, administrative officers and members of the administrative staff as are specified from time to time by the Trustees, and such number of students as may be given this responsibility by the Trustees. A full description of Academic Council and Council committees is found in the Articles of Government.

The Committee on Faculty Appointments is composed of the president, the dean of the College and associate dean of the College (non-voting), and six tenured faculty members -- one from each of the three groups of departments elected by preferential ballot sent to the faculty in that group, two members-at-large elected by preferential ballot, and one member elected by the faculty of the Black Task Force. The Advisory Committee on Budgetary Affairs is composed of the president or her designee, the vice president for administration and finance, five faculty, two members from Administrative Council, the president and bursar of College Government, and two other students selected by the student Senate. The Committee on Curriculum and Instruction is composed of the president or her designee, the dean of the College or her designee, six faculty and two students. The Agenda Committee, which includes elected faculty, the president, and the dean of the College, is responsible for nominating candidates and conducting elections to fill faculty vacancies on standing committees of Academic Council. It is also charged with assuring that Academic Council functions according to its mandate as stated in the College's bylaws.

In addition to the Board of Trustees and Academic Council and their committees, the College also has an Administrative Council for staff (see Administrative Council Guidelines and Bylaws) and College Government for students. College Government, which enacts and administers most of the legislation governing student life, includes all students as members. Duties which fall under its jurisdiction include the governance of student organizations, appointments of students to College committees, allocations of student activity funds, administration of the honor code and judicial process, and representation of student body opinion (see College Government Handbook for a full description of the functions of College Government.)

The Administrative Council, established in 1983, provides administrative staff with a forum to discuss and make recommendations on issues of common concern. Serving in an advisory capacity to the president, Administrative Council represents the views of the staff, and its recommendations are brought to the president, senior staff and Board of Trustees. The Council meets monthly and operates through its standing committees: Steering, Nominating, Diversity, and the Compensation and Personnel Policy Advisory Committee (CPPAC.) Major policy issues with which the Council has been involved include the administrative salary scale, employment benefits for staff, and diversity and multicultural policies and programs. In Administrative Council meetings, members are briefed by senior administrators on academic matters and policy issues.

The administrative organization of the College is shown in the table of organization (please see Institutional Characteristics). Six senior administrators responsible for major divisions of the College report directly to the president. These are the dean of the College, dean of students, vice president for finance and administration, vice president for information services, vice president for resources and public affairs, and dean of admission. Four other senior administrators also report to the president and serve on senior staff: two associate deans of the College, the vice president for planning, and the director of equal opportunity and multicultural programs. The senior staff team meets weekly with the president.

The president and members of the senior staff meet periodically with a larger group of senior administrators to discuss managerial policy issues. In the past two years, all members of this larger group have participated -- with the president and the senior staff -- in twelve days of leadership development training. They are now working to design additional training programs for all administrative staff.

The president, sometimes together with the chair of the Board of Trustees, regularly convenes cross-constituency task forces and committees to address planning and policy issues. Examples of administrative committees convened in the past two years include the Task Force on Plans, Priorities and Fiscal Policies; the Ad Hoc Committee on Racism and Multiculturalism; the Information Services Task Force; the Campus Master Planning Steering Committee and Advisory Board; the Task Force on Translating the Liberal Arts into Action; and the Global Education Advisory Committee.

The role of the academic department chairs has grown in importance as the governance of the College becomes more complex. They ordinarily serve for three-year terms and the responsibility rotates among members of each department. Last year, a committee of past and current department chairs was asked by the president and the dean to examine the role of the department chair at Wellesley College. After careful study, the committee elected not to recommend a university model of "strong chairs", but the committee did identify several concerns with the current system. In some cases, the committee observed, departments need more leadership than the current model provides. In other cases, the role is administratively effective, but is not always the most creative use of resources for the department.

The committee made recommendations to strengthen the partnership and cooperation between the dean's office and the chairs, and between the chairs and their departments. The report addressed issues of communication, expectations, accountability, and compensation, and discussed ways to improve the process of selecting department chairs. Several of the specific recommendations have been implemented by the dean's office. The report was the subject of discussion at a meeting of the department chairs in February, 1997.

Appraisal

In general, these organizational and governance systems work well as facilitators of the active participation in campus life that is highly valued in the Wellesley tradition. These structures also come under regular review. The Trustees, in a 1994 retreat, developed several recommendations concerning the Board organization, committee structure, and meeting design; several of these recommendations were adopted and continue to apply. The Board also recently completed a major revision and updating of its bylaws and revised its conflict of interest policies to ensure compliance with the spirit and the letter of all applicable laws and the mission of Wellesley College.

Since the last self-study in 1989, the Academic Council constituted the Agenda Committee, incorporating the functions of the now-defunct Nominating Committee, and broadening its scope to include oversight of the full operation of the Academic Council, and the setting of priorities for that body's deliberations. The Administrative Council and the College Government routinely adapt and augment their committee structures to promote the active involvement of their respective constituencies in campus life.

Recently, the efficacy of the College's governance structures has been a matter of discussion among members of the community. Some members of the community have questioned whether these structures support meaningful participation and effective decision-making as well as they might. Some have observed that despite the participatory nature of the governance system, communication among groups (students, faculty, and staff) and between groups and the administration is not always as effective as the community expects or needs. Questions have been raised about the relationship between the administrative structure -- as embodied in the president's senior staff and in administratively-appointed committees -- and the committees of governance in the decision-making process. It has been observed that the highly participatory decision-making processes at times do not result in a clear communal understanding of the rationale for decisions, or how they were taken. The traditional large meeting forum of the governance bodies has not always provided the ideal setting for meaningful discussions of important issues. Finally, the Agenda Committee of Academic Council has recently considered the workload issues raised by operating ad hoc committees simultaneously with a full complement of standing committees of governance.

The Agenda Committee has begun a discussion in Academic Council on the governance structure. In a committee of the whole discussion at a February, 1998 Academic Council meeting, members raised many issues about the structure of the Council, the relationship between Council committees and ad hoc committees formed by the administration, and the decision-making processes. Some members discussed the effectiveness of Council as a forum for airing important issues, and suggested more frequent use of the committee of the whole, in which it is not necessary to have a specific proposal before the body. Members of Academic Council expressed the concern that ad hoc committees result in fragmentation of the community, and that their relationship to governance bodies and the decision-making process is unclear. The Agenda Committee intends to develop recommendations to address the concerns raised by the Council.

The 1989 reaccreditation self-study noted that "All constituencies have come to expect consultation on a wide variety of topics from admissions to calendar to landscaping. Yet, at the same time, many individuals feel overworked and wish for some relief from administrative burdens." Despite the elimination of some standing committees since that time, the observation accurately reflects current reality.

Projections

The governance discussions of the past two years have set some new directions for the processes the College uses to consult with each other and make decisions. Academic Council's use of the committee of the whole format has allowed for constructive discussion of a number of issues, including the proposed global education initiative, revision of the student course evaluation, new approaches to faculty development, and the subject of governance itself. It is expected that this format will be used more often to promote the exchange of ideas without the requirement of votes on a specific proposal.

The Administrative Council's experiments with use of small groups and carefully designed focused discussion have proven useful in increasing the interactive nature of those meetings. We expect that this format will continue to improve the College's ability to promote dialogue with staff. The Board of Trustees continues its review of its committee structure, and will experiment with new approaches to committee work. The dean of the College will continue efforts to support academic department chairs with management training. The work of most of the ad hoc committees of the past few years has now moved either into the implementation stage or onto the agenda of an appropriate governance committee. The Agenda Committee of Academic Council has put in place a procedure for posting information on the charge and membership of all ad hoc committees on the College-Wide Information System. The names, telephone numbers and e-mail addresses of the members of the president's senior staff are now identified in the campus telephone directory: a minor achievement, but one which has helped diminish confusion about who serves on senior staff.

Several cross-constituency events have been successful in expanding the understanding of faculty, students and staff about the variety of perspectives from which Wellesley College is experienced. An effort is now being made to sponsor more of these kinds of events, both for both celebratory and substantive purposes. The senior administration and the student government officers are collaborating in this effort.

President Walsh has reactivated the President's Advisory Council, which existed in Academic Council legislation, but had been moribund for years. She asked the Administrative Council to elect their own Advisory Council members, and she convenes the groups together. Faculty, students and administrative staff are now all represented on the PAC, and it began meeting in the Fall 1998 semester.

Governance at Wellesley in the near term will be characterized by efforts to improve interaction among constituency groups, and to create settings in which people can explore ideas on important matters, before those matters are brought for formal votes.

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