Mission Statement and Charter for the Internal College Relations Committee Mission The Internal College Relations Committee serves as a key forum for an open exchange of information and views between the faculty and the different administrative entities of the college, both academic and non-academic. Designated members of the committee serve on the Academic-Military Liaison Committee, appointed by the President. (See appendix.) Charter I. Membership A. Representation Academic faculty members of standing committees are selected by the Committee on Committees, and membership is restricted to tenured/tenure track faculty who have been employed at The Citadel for at least one semester at the time they begin committee service. The Internal College Relations Committee is made up of twelve academic faculty members (four from each cluster) and a military faculty member from one of the ROTC departments; the President, the Executive Vice President, the Commandant of Cadets, and the Athletic Director (or their designees) serve as non-voting liaison members to this committee. B. Tenure Faculty members are selected for three year terms and may request a second consecutive term; no faculty member may serve on a 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 unexpired 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 the end of spring semester. The term of the 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, and undertakes whatever other measures are necessary to facilitate the work of the committee. B. Secretary At its organizational meeting, the committee will also elect a secretary from among its voting members. The secretary is responsible for the maintenance of meeting minutes and for the production of the committee.s annual report. C. Subcommittees At its organizational meeting, the members accept assignment into subcommittees to work with each of the liaison members. Each of these four subcommittees will deliberate on the issues in its purview and then report back to the entire Committee with whatever recommendations are necessary. D. 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. Each faculty member will have one vote; a quorum consists of seven voting members. III. Activities and Responsibilities III.1 General Activities of Standing Committees A. Information The Internal College Relations Committee gathers, analyzes, and disseminates information regarding the ways in which the different administrations of the college influence each other.s missions. It is authorized to gather information by means of (a) 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; (b) the development and use of questionnaires and surveys; and (c) 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 substitute a recommendation for administrative action. The committee disseminates information by means of (a) a report to a department or committee based upon a request for information, (b) reports generated from within the committee, and (c) periodic status reports to the college as specified in the charter. B. Annual Report The Internal College Relations Committee will prepare an annual report summarizing 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. C. Other Reports The Internal College Relations Committee is responsible for the timely dissemination of all non-confidential 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 committee reports are to be considered published information. D. Tasks The work of the Internal College Relations Committee consists of a series of tasks--units of work involving the gathering, analysis, and dissemination of information. The committee will assume 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 Internal College Relations 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 Internal College Relations Committee Inasmuch as this committee is principally concerned with improving communications between the faculty and the different administrations on campus, its first duty is to serve as a clearinghouse of information. It requests copies of all non- confidential reports generated by the different administrations that are pertinent to the faculty.s pedagogical or professional interests--reports dealing, for instance, with the academic performance of student athletes or with certain operations of the Honor Court or other disciplinary bodies. The committee serves also to mediate disputes that arise between faculty and the different administrations. If certain non-academic obligations were seen as preventing cadets from functioning at their peak level, this committee could investigate and make recommendations to the proper authorities. 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, in which case 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, in which case the chair will return the request and suggest a date for re-submittal; 3) the task falls outside the scope or sphere of interest of the committee, in which case the chair will ask the requesting body either to 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; or 4) the committee does not have the resources or the authority to complete the task, in which case 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 Internal College Relations 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. Appendix: At its November 1991 meeting, Faculty Council unanimously resolved that the Academic Military Liaison Committee be staffed as follows: three academic faculty members and the ROTC faculty member of the Internal College Relations Committee; a representative from the Commandant.s Office; and a cadet from each class, with the senior, junior, and sophomore representatives being class officers and the freshman representative being the holder of the Star of the West scholarship. Council also moved that this liaison committee report directly to the standing committee on Internal College Relations.