ACADEMIC GOVERNANCE

A distinctive feature of great liberal arts universities is their commitment to the principles of shared governance. Although the specific shape of shared governance varies from one institution to the next, the term “shared governance” itself refers to an understanding that the institution’s governing Board, the administrative leadership of the University and its faculty all participate in various ways in governance of the institution as it seeks to fulfill its mission.

In some universities there are very clear and distinct spheres of responsibility for the Board, the administration and the faculty, whereas at other institutions the lines of jurisdictional demarcation are less formal or distinct. Habib University aspires to a distinctive model of shared governance that embraces its Yohsin values and encourages genuine teamwork among faculty, the administration and the University’s Board of Governors as they collectively work towards a shared goal: the success of Habib students.

This model of shared governance emphasizes collaboration and it values consensus. We collectively recognize that the faculty, the administration and the Board of Governors will not always agree, but we aspire to a culture of mutual respect and honest exchange – a genuinely collaborative culture in which everyone recognizes, especially in moments of profound disagreement, that others, with whom they may disagree, are motivated by the same deep passion for our students and a shared commitment to their success. In building this model of shared governance, which emphasizes partnership over confrontation, we all strive to see matters empathetically through the eyes of those with whom we disagree. We also commit to each other to try to shape our decisions based on the same shared body of basic factual information. We seek to engage each other in honest and respectful conversation as we reach decisions, instead of immediately jumping to speculative assumptions about the motivations of those with whom we disagree.

As is true of most great liberal arts universities, subject to the authority of the President and the Dean of Faculty, the approval of the Board of Governors and the Charter of the University, the Habib University faculty has primary jurisdiction over all academic matters, including: curriculum, academic regulations, academic planning and curricular review, teaching procedures and requirements, academic advisement, co-curricular academic activities, the academic discipline of students and recommendations on the conferral of degrees.

The faculty organizes itself under the leadership of the President and determines its own governance procedures. The University Faculty Meeting is a committee of the whole and serves as the supreme decision making body for the Habib University faculty in all matters under its jurisdiction, except as that jurisdiction is delegated by the Faculty Meeting itself to various committees that report to the entire faculty at its monthly meetings.

The Faculty Senate is the duly elected representative leadership of the entire faculty. On behalf of the faculty, the Senate interacts with and advises the Dean of Faculty, and, on occasion, the President and other senior administrative officers on academic freedom, curricular issues, staffing, strategic planning, shared governance, budgeting and other matters of import which may arise. Much of the faculty’s work is accomplished through a series of faculty committees, some of which are elected and some of which are appointed. In addition, faculty frequently serve on University committees as well. The current list of faculty and University committees and their membership are listed below