Senate - Administration Partnership
Under the UC shared governance model, we work closely with the Academic Senate to address campus-wide issues. Our joint senate-administration workgroups perform in-depth analyses and provide recommendations that inform efforts to continuously improve our organizational policies and processes, and develop a more supportive university infrastructure. Visit the Senate's website (senate.ucsd.edu) for information about issues under review as well as reports and recommendations from committees and workgroups. The following are a summary of recent work completed by workgroups and task forces.
Guidelines for Academic Affairs Workgroups, Committees, and Task Forces
In striving to accomplish elements of UC San Diego’s strategic plan, campus leaders regularly convene groups of faculty, staff, and student representatives to address issues with far-reaching implications.
The framework articulated in this document has been jointly developed by administrative and Academic Senate leadership to support the success of critical initiatives. These guidelines apply to joint Senate-Administration workgroups as well as administrative workgroups, committees, task forces, or other teams charged by the Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor (EVC) or its reporting units, including Academic Personnel Services, Student Affairs, and Office for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. The expectations and protocols outlined below are intended to guide the creation of high-quality reports and recommendations produced by each group in response to its charge.
PARTICIPATION
Group members are carefully selected based on criteria such as area of expertise, center/scope of responsibility, and ability to represent key stakeholders. It is essential that organizational teams be representative of diverse opinions, experiences, skills, etc. and thus each member is invited to the group for the explicit purpose of sharing their unique perspective. It is important that all workgroup members attend and participate fully.
Each member is expected to actively contribute to the group’s work both during meetings and outside of meetings by:
- Attending meetings and engaging in group discussions, preparing for meetings
- Examining, commenting on, and contributing to materials prepared for the group’s review or reference (e.g., meeting agendas, presentations, background information, files for discussion, draft reports)
- Assisting the group’s research process and conducting additional due diligence independently as appropriate
Before agreeing to join a workgroup, prospective members should consider their existing commitments and capacity to contribute to the group’s work within the designated time frame. If a group member is unable to fulfill their commitment to the group, the convener may ask the office(s) that charged the workgroup to provide a replacement. Note that, per existing practice, the group’s designated administrative support staff is responsible for sharing information about faculty service on workgroups to the Academic Senate Committee on Committees.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
A group’s charge should include information about the context of the work to be undertaken, specific deliverables requested, associated deadlines, and guidance regarding the due diligence expected to inform the work.
Groups may choose to develop a team charter to establish the foundation for how the group will work together as a cohesive unit, including additional details regarding conditions of participation, individual roles, and how core business activities will be conducted.
Groups are encouraged to utilize technology to facilitate efficient project management and to offer several means for members to engage with the group. Information about cloud-based collaboration and communication tools available to faculty and staff is available on Blink (see: blink.ucsd.edu/go/filesharing).
Since workgroup outcomes have important implications for campus policy and operations, the team should strive to stay within the designated timeline.
REQUIRED DUE DILIGENCE
Workgroups are expected to conduct robust research to inform evidence-based decision-making. In addition to insights that may be gleaned from individual members’ prior knowledge or experience, teams are expected to incorporate data from relevant internal and external sources. To make the team’s work as effective and relevant as possible, the team should apprise itself of background information, peer best practices, institutional data, and other relevant information.
At a minimum, groups are encouraged to:
- Conduct literature reviews to understand essential principles or theories, academic and/or industry standards and emerging trends, as well as standard best practices at institutions both within and beyond the U.C.Explore recommendations from related workgroups;
- Consult colleagues in other offices to understand organizational dynamics and institutional history; and
- Review findings from campus surveys and other relevant campus reports.
Group chairs and support staff are responsible for facilitating the group’s analysis, but all members are expected to proactively contribute to the group’s data collection and information sharing.
Institutional Research is available to provide additional support related to data-based planning, evaluation, and assessment. Please visit the office’s website (ir.ucsd.edu) to access data and reports from existing analyses or for more information about their services.
REPORT SUBMISSION & NEXT STEPS
Unless stated otherwise, workgroups dissolve at the conclusion of their project with the submission of their final report and recommendations.
Reports should be submitted to the office(s) that charged the group. For joint Senate-Administration workgroups, reports should be shared with the EVC Office and Academic Senate concurrently.
Group chairs may share the near-final draft of their work products with the office(s) that charged the group. This creates an opportunity for campus leaders to ensure that the group’s charge has been addressed comprehensively and completely, and to provide any other overarching suggestions before the workgroup concludes.
The purpose of workgroups is to help develop solutions to systemic challenges facing the campus community and to advance progress towards common strategic goals. With few exceptions, workgroup reports should include specific recommendations for addressing the issues outlined in the charge letter and identified in the group’s analysis.
The office(s) that charged the group is responsible for responding to the report in consultation with other campus units that may be impacted by or involved with implementing any of the recommendations provided in the report. When workgroup recommendations propose the creation of new policies or procedures, the group convener should contact the Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor for guidance on proper routing.
SAMPLE WORKGROUP REPORT OUTLINE
- Executive Summary
- Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Data & Analysis
- Recommendations
- Conclusion
- Appendices
- Final Group Membership
- List of Documents Reviewed
- Data sources consulted
- Analysis methodology
