The Lafayette College faculty acted to maintain the precedent for their formal approval and input on the recently drafted strategic plan in last week’s faculty meeting, challenging an administrative change to the process.
A motion was brought forth during the virtual Nov. 14 faculty meeting to prompt a faculty council to bring forth a separate motion for a faculty vote on the strategic plan.
With 23 signatories, including seven assistant professors, the motion passed 102 to 18 with 10 abstentions, according to the Clerk of Faculty Joshua Smith.
The proposal was created in response to a survey for the endorsement of the strategic plan sent out to the campus community and announced earlier this month by the strategic planning steering committee. The survey was opened on Monday and will close Friday at 5 p.m.; it was accompanied by a feedback form.
“Moving to an online survey and eliminating a faculty vote on a plan that will literally shape the institution for the coming decades unacceptably bypasses norms for faculty engagement and shared governance,” the motion reads, citing faculty endorsements of prior strategic plans.
“This isn’t complicated,” Robert Blunt, a religious studies professor, said of the motion. “It should be subject to public deliberation by the faculty at a meeting and subject to a faculty vote. This is not a small thing, a strategic plan.”
The motion was authored by Blunt, Robin Rinehart, another religious studies professor and Mary Armstrong, a women, gender & sexuality studies professor. Rinehart presented the motion at the meeting.
“We wanted to make sure we were on record, that the faculty were on record to say it is important to us that we vote on this,” Rinehart said.
Notably, seven assistant professors signed onto the motion, an unusual move for pre-tenure faculty. Several assistant professors declined to comment further on the matter.
“The strategic planning steering committee, which includes a robust representation of faculty and staff, is grateful that, after 18 months of an inclusive and iterative communal process, the campus will come together and give voice to the endorsement of the proposed strategic plan,” college President Nicole Hurd wrote in an email.
“The committee has sought to involve the campus in all steps of the planning process and is excited to facilitate this endorsement process for the campus community,” she continued. “Consistent with the use of the faculty meeting to center faculty’s voice in shared governance, we appreciate that the faculty will do this important work together during the meeting on December 3.”
Blunt said that he thought that a community survey did not recognize “the unique position that faculty have at any institution of higher learning in terms of shared governance.”
The motion charges the Advocacy and Coordination Council with putting forth its intended motion for the faculty vote on the endorsement of the strategic plan.
One of the charges of the council is to “advocate for Faculty interests and for Faculty influence in College policies,” according to the faculty handbook.
The Advocacy and Coordination Council met on Thursday to discuss the motion, beyond the deadline for publication. Several council members declined to comment, citing that the group had not yet met to discuss the motion.
The council’s motion will be brought before the faculty during its Dec. 3 meeting. The strategic plan is expected to be approved by the Board of Trustees in late December, according to announcements.
