Mission Statement and Charter for
the Campus Affairs Committee

Mission

The primary mission of the Campus Affairs Committee is to gather information about and reflect faculty opinion regarding aspects of campus operation that affect faculty interests, yet do not bear directly on classroom activities.

Charter

I. Membership

A. Representation

The Committee on Committees selects three tenured or tenure-track faculty members who live on campus and three tenured or tenure-track faculty member who live off campus (with no more than two members from the same department) to serve on the committee. Academic faculty membership is restricted to tenured or tenure-track faculty members who have been employed at The Citadel for at least one full academic year at the time they begin committee service. In addition to the academic faculty members, the committee shall include one ROTC faculty member selected by the Committee on Committees, one undergraduate student without voting privileges appointed by the Provost, and three administrative liaisons without voting privileges, one appointed the Director of Public Safety, one by the Vice President for Facilities and Construction and on by the Director of the Physical Plant.

B. Tenure

Academic faculty members serve three year rotating terms, staggered so that at all times two-thirds of the committee have a collective memory of past decisions. All other members of the committee serve one-year terms. An academic faculty member may request a second consecutive term; no faculty member may serve on the committee for more than six years consecutively. If a faculty member cannot complete a term, the Committee on Committees will select another member to fill the un-expired term. Time spent filling the term of another faculty member will not count toward the "six-year rule" outlined above.

II. Structure

A. Chair

The committee, at an organizational meeting, held before the end of spring semester, shall elect a Chair from among faculty by secret ballot. The term of chair lasts until the next election. A member may not serve as a committee chair for more than three years consecutively. The Chair schedules and presides over meetings, represents the committee before outside bodies, produces an annual report of committee activities, and undertakes whatever other measures are necessary to facilitate the work of the committee.

B. Subcommittees

The committee may form subcommittees either to divide a committee task into parts or to perform a specific task. The Chair shall appoint members to subcommittees.

C. Meetings

The committee must meet at least twice during the academic year (once in the Fall and once in the Spring). The chair must hold a meeting if requested in writing by at least one-third of the voting members. A quorum consists of six voting members.

III. Activities

III.1 General Activities of Standing Committees

A. Information

The Campus Affairs Committee gathers, analyzes, and disseminates information relevant to those non-academic aspects of campus operation that affect faculty interests. It is authorized to gather information by means of:

1. direct request to a college administrative department or activity; an academic department; another standing committee; or any group or association of Citadel faculty, staff or students
2. the development and use of questionnaires and surveys
3. the use of previously published information.

The committee analyzes information through statistical summaries, compilation of written material, or other established methods. The analysis may provide the college with information pertinent to a particular issue, or it may substantiate a recommendation for administrative action.

The committee disseminates information by means of

1. a response (report) to a department or committee based upon a request for information
2. reports generated from within the committee
3. periodic status reports to the college as specified in its charter

B. Annual report

The Campus Affairs Committee will prepare an annual report summarizing its activities over the previous academic year. The report must include all decisions of the committee. Copies of this report, both in hard copy and in electronic form, will be made accessible to all Citadel faculty, staff and students.

C. Other reports

The committee is responsible for the timely dissemination of all reports to the Citadel community. Committee reports shall be made available through the Library and through college-wide computer system access. Reports may contain recommendations or proposals. For the purposes of gathering information (see above), all reports are to be considered published information.

D. Tasks

The work of the Campus Affairs Committee consists of a series of tasks-- units of work involving the gathering, analysis, and dissemination of information. The committee assumes tasks through one of the following means:

1. Completion of tasks as articulated in the "Specific Activities" sectioarizing the committee's activities over the previous academic year. The report must include all non- confidential decisions of the committee. Copies of this report, both in hardcopy and in electronic form, will be made accessible to all Citadel faculty, staff, and students.
2. Completion of a report which includes information requested by an administrative department or activity, an academic department, anther committee, the Faculty Council, or the Academic Board. Requests of individual faculty members must be made through the Faculty Council. Students or other individuals may not assign a task to the Campus Affairs Committee except through one of the above-mentioned bodies.
3. Tasks can be generated from within the committee. Any committee member may request that the committee study a topic or issue within its sphere of interest. The committee may also may develop its own long-range projects or studies as part of its ongoing mission.

III.2 Specific Activities of the Campus Affairs Committee

The committee will:

1. make recommendations regarding faculty housing
2. assist in adjudicating disputes arising among residents of on-campus housing
3. participate in the campus-wide facility planning process by contributing faculty representatives serving on that board
4. gather information and make recommendations concerning the regulation of security and on-campus housing
5. gather information and make recommendations concerning faculty use of on-campus facilities such as the boating center, the beach club, and the gymnasium
6. gather information and make recommendations regarding the general appearance of the campus.

IV. Autonomy

To ensure the efficiency and quality of committee work, the committee is granted a degree of autonomy over its own operations. Upon receiving a request from another college body, the committee will vote to accept or reject the request. A request for information can be rejected for the following reasons:

1. The request is unclear; the committee chair will ask the requesting body to clarify any ambiguities and resubmit the request.
2. The committee's workload is currently too great to perform the task in the requested time frame; the chair will return the request an suggest a date for re-submittal.
3. The task falls outside the scope or sphere of interest of the committee; the chair will ask the requesting body to either submit the request to another committee or (if the task falls within the scope of more than one committee) divide the task between the committees.
4. The committee does not have the resources or the authority to complete the task; the chair will explain which parts of the task cannot be completed, and the requesting body may resubmit a modified request.

V. Amending the Charter

The Campus Affairs Committee may modify its charter in consultation with the Committee on Committees. Proposals for changes in the committee charter come to the Committee on Committees, which negotiates the changes with the standing committee and with any affected administrative departments. Consensus requests are forwarded to Faculty Council for approval. In case of a lack of consensus, competing proposals may be sent to the Faculty Council for consideration.

Revised May 2008