the Laney College Policy and Advisory Committee (LCPAC), and the college president. The college president provides leadership and serves as the chief liaison between the College Council and LCPAC. Substantive and defined roles in institutional governance bodies for faculty and administrators are provided in documents such as the Laney College Participatory Governance and Administrative Structures policy and the Faculty Senate Handbook (IVA2a-2). The mechanism for student and staff participation is also included in the Laney College participatory governance and administrative structures policy, as well as in the ASLC constitution and the Classified Senate Bylaws (IVA2a-3, IVA2a -4). The College Council has broad-based representation that includes faculty, classified staff, students, and administrators. The college president acts as the chairperson (ex-officio). Also included in the College Council are the chairs of other governance committees, such as the Budget Advisory Committee, Curriculum Committee, Facilities Planning Committee, Planning Coordinating Committee, Technology Planning Committee, Educational and Student Services Planning Committee, and the Accreditation Steering Committee (IVA2a-1). The College Council’s representative membership from all of the college’s constituencies provides the opportunity for multiple viewpoints to be expressed and allows for the broadest base of consensus possible.
to the college president, as well as conveying to the college president the views of the campus community on issues relevant to college operations. At its inception, the College Council carried out its charge of being the primary participatory governance body for Laney College by recommending policy and policy-implementation measures to the college president. However, the shared-governance work groups, formed during the educational master planning retreat in June 2008, agreed that the College Council has devolved into being mostly a “reporting out” mechanism (IVA2a-5). The work group called for the College Council to recommit to its original responsibility of prioritizing policy matters, offering advice, making recommendations to the college president, and suggesting policy-implementation strategies. Consistency of leadership, now that most campus administrative vacancies have been permanently filled, should help the College Council refocus and execute its original charge.
Responses to a series of questions in the accreditation self study faculty, staff and administrator survey yielded a snapshot of the current state of participatory governance at Laney College. While an overwhelming majority of respondents, 76.5 percent, believe that shared governance exists at Laney College, an almost equal number, 75.3 percent, reveal that they do not possess or have not seen a copy of the Laney College participatory governance and administrative structures document (IVA2a-6). The College Council is the primary participatory With this feedback, the college has committed to governance body of the college and has, as its charge, disseminating information to the campus community the responsibility of recommending policy and through a variety of methods to increase awareness procedures for implementing initiatives, including of and participation in the shared-governance planning and budget development to the college process. president. College Council procedures set out the manner in which issues can be brought to the College Evaluation The college meets this standard. Council by an individual or standing committee for placement on the agenda and action. Planning Agenda The college is committed to disseminating The LCPAC is a smaller governance group that information to the campus community through a also has the broad-based participation of faculty, variety of methods to increase awareness of and classified staff, students, and administrators; it participation in the shared-governance process. In is primarily composed of the leadership of these consultation with the public information officer, campus constituencies. The LCPAC is charged with college governance committees will develop web identifying issues and problems for consideration site and electronic bulletin board notices. During
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