Mission Statement and Charter for the
Computer Services Committee

Mission

The committee elicits opinions from the academic community and makes recommendations to the administration regarding the choice and availability of hardware resources and software applications, and the types of services that should be provided by Information Technology Services for students and faculty.

Charter

I. Membership

A. Representation

The Committee on Committees selects one tenured or tenure-track faculty member from each school (plus the library) 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, two students  (one undergraduate, one graduate) appointed by the Provost, and one administrative liaison without voting privileges appointed by the Director of Information Technology Services.

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 shall have a chair selected by committee vote at an organizational meeting held before September 30 of each year. The term of the chair lasts until the next election. A member may not serve as committee chair for more than three years consecutively. The chair is responsible for scheduling and presiding over committee meetings, representing the committee before outside bodies, and producing an annual report of committee activities.

B. Subcommittees

The committee may form subcommittees to perform specific tasks.

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 one-half of the voting membership.

III. Activities

III.1 General Activities of Standing Committees

A. Information

The Computer Services Committee gathers, analyzes, and disseminates information relevant to the use of computers at The Citadel. 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 Computer Services 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 Computer Services 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" section of this charter.
  2. Completion of a report which includes information requested by an administrative department or activity, an academic department, another 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 Computer Services 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 develop its own long-range projects or studies as part of its ongoing mission.

III.2 Specific Activities of the Computer Services Committee

The committee

  1. recommends policies and improvements in matters of academic computing
  2. assists in resolving differences between ITS and academic departments, when necessary
  3. receives the annual report of ITS and reviews it to the extent that it relates to academic computing.

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:

  • The request is unclear; the committee chair will ask the requesting body to clarify any ambiguities and resubmit the request.
  • The committee's workload is currently too great to perform the task in the requested time frame; the chair will return the request and suggest a date for re-submittal.
  • 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.
  • 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 Computer Services 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 the 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