Prioritization of Senate Workload
The Senate often receives a variety of issues from various sources. These issues must be assessed so that Senate workload is prioritized in a way that allows time-sensitive issues to be addressed efficiently and effectively and recognizes that not all issues can be prioritized at once.
Factors that Influence Prioritization of Issues (In order of operations or a decision tree)
- President’s or Provost’s Initiatives
- Submission Date of Proposal
- Overall Senate workload & timeline
- Complexity of charge
- External deadline requirement
- Workload level within a particular committee
- Order of a committee’s charges
- Charges that span multiple committees
- Availability of subject matter experts or administrators
Prioritization of Types of Issues
High Priority (in rank order)
- Temporary Policy Changes (immediate policy changes needed for a defined period of time)
- Faculty Grievances*
- Student Conduct Appeals Cases
- Senate Membership-Related Processes (general elections, committee volunteer, transition elections)
- Annual Processes or Tasks
- Joint Task Forces
- Interim Policies
- Proposals Related to Policies, Procedures, & Guidelines that:
- Identify conflicts between policies
- Identify gaps in policy
- Revise existing policy to address specific issues
- Revise existing practices, procedures, or guidelines to address specific issues
*Proposal to amend the faculty grievance policy to remove the Director as the administrator responsible for the process is forthcoming.
Medium Priority (in rank order)
- PCC Actions
- Policies from University Councils
- Senate Procedural Issues
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Proposals Related to Policies, Procedure, & Guidelines that:
- Convert current practice into policy
- Align policy with current practice
- Develop or revise guidelines or procedures for existing policy
- Create new policy
- Policies and Plans that have Required Review Cycles
- Senate Actions with Provisions Requiring Follow Up
Low Priority (in rank order)
- Technical Amendments to Policies
- Resolutions
- General Inquiries from Campus Community Members
- Deactivation of Policies