Report of the Committee on Undergraduate Life,
Subcommittee on House Governance
23 January 2006 (Draft)
The House Governance Subcommittee of the Committee on Undergraduate Life (CUL) recommends the creation of the following governance structures and procedures for The Williams House System. This vision of house governance was shaped by three main goals: 1) supporting a vibrant house life without creating an unwieldy or top-heavy governing structure; 2) encouraging as many people as possible to become involved in house activities; 3) building a sense of house community and identity. The recommendations below are intended to be the fundamental building blocks of house governance; we recognize that each house may develop its own unique features as necessary, but maintaining the following core elements will help ensure a degree of uniformity and equity across the houses.
We recommend that each house be led by a House Governance Board, consisting of the following positions: President, House Life Coordinator, Historian, Treasurer, Community Liaison, Faculty Associate (this role will be shared by all of the houseÕs Faculty Associates), and Campus Life Coordinator.
House Life Coordinator Historian Treasurer Community Liaison
Faculty Associate Campus Life Coordinator
A Board of this size will be able to govern the house dynamically without becoming bogged down in bureaucracy, and will likely attract a core group of dedicated and energetic students. Each position on the Board is substantial, but no particular Board member should feel overburdened. The responsibilities of each of the seven positions are outlined below.
The primary roles of the president are to oversee and ensure smooth and efficient governance of the house, and to serve as the most visible and important representative of the house to outside bodies. To these ends, the president will: oversee the House Governance Board; run Board meetings; serve as the houseÕs liaison to the College administration, faculty, trustees, and house alumni; facilitate interhouse communication; and represent the house on the College Council. This role is designed to be filled by one person (i.e. not co-presidents), who will be the most responsible among the Board members for governing the house.
B. House Life Coordinator
The House Life Coordinator (HLC) will be responsible for coordinating event planning. This will entail spearheading the initiatives of the Residential Life Coordinators (see below for a description of the RLC position), and presenting event ideas to the rest of the Board for their input. The House Life Coordinator will also serve as the point person for communicating with the Community Service, ACE, and Dining Services Student Ambassadors (see the Support Services Subcommittee Report for details on the Student Ambassador position).
Residential Life Coordinators
The Residential Life Coordinators (RLCs) will play the roles of the current House Coordinators, and will be represented on the Board by the HLC. They will plan events for the house, as well as activities for their individual residence, and deal with any issues that may arise in their residence. The work of the HLC and RLCs will be supported by a Campus Life Coordinator (CLC) from the Office of Campus Life.
C. Historian
The HistorianÕs role is to create and maintain the houseÕs memory by documenting its activities and preserving knowledge of its past. The Historian will: take photographs at, and keep written records of, house events; update the official house bulletin board and house website; take notes at Board meetings; display house objects and memorabilia; and maintain the house archives.
D. Treasurer
The Treasurer is responsible for the financial transactions and well-being of the house. He or she will determine the house budget, maintain all financial records, and execute all financial transactions.
E. Community Liaison
The Community LiaisonÕs main concern is to ensure that as many members as possible are included and feel at home in the house by facilitating communication between the Board and the house, fostering a sense of community, and making certain that activities reflect the diversity of interests within the house. This will entail publicizing events to everyone in the house. The Community Liaison will attend MinCo training and governing board meetings so that he or she will be able to integrate MinCo initiatives and concerns into house programming.
The Community Liaison will also serve as a publicity liaison to the first-year entries affiliated with the house, and as the point person for communicating with the Sexual Assault/ Health/Psychological Services, Multicultural Center, and Queer Peers/Safe Space Student Ambassadors.
F. Faculty Associates
Each house will have four Faculty Associates, one from athletics and one from each of the three academic divisions. The primary role of the Faculty Associate is to invigorate the intellectual and social life of the house. Each Faculty Associate will hold weekly Òoffice hoursÓ in the main social space of the house to get to know students, will plan at least one social event a semester, attend as many events as possible, and integrate faculty (and their families) into house life by encouraging the participation of Faculty Affiliates. The Faculty Associates as a whole will also serve as point people for communicating with the Career Counseling and Academic Resource Offices Student Ambassadors.
G. Campus Life Coordinator
The Campus Life Coordinator from the Office of Campus Life will serve as an advisor to the Board. He or she is required to attend all Board meetings, and to provide support for the event planning and programming of the house.
We strongly recommend that the entire House Governance Board be required to come back from summer break early, around the time that the House Coordinators currently return. This will allow the Board to be trained, begin working as a team, and start planning for the upcoming year. Also, we suggest that an invitation be extended to one member of the Board to spend the summer on campus to receive training from the Office of Campus Life and to get a jump start on event programming. This student should be provided with room, board, and a stipend.
II. House Governance Procedures
We recommend that the following procedures serve as minimum and fundamental guidelines for the governing of the house.
A. Selection of Board Members
The President, Historian, Treasurer, and Community Liaison will be elected, following the election process described below in Section IIB.
The House Life Coordinator will be chosen from among, and by, the Residential Life Coordinators by majority vote. The Residential Life Coordinators will be selected by, and paid through, the Office of Campus Life, as House Coordinators are now.
For the 2006-2007 academic year only, the Faculty Associates will be selected by this Subcommittee and the CUL due to issues of timing (students would like the Faculty Associates to be chosen before the cluster draw). In subsequent years, the Faculty Associates will be appointed by the Faculty Steering Committee, which will consider faculty interest and house needs when making these assignments. Serving as a Faculty Associate will be recognized by the Dean of the Faculty as a form of College service.
B. Elections
For the 2006-2007 academic year only, house elections will be run by this Subcommittee given our knowledge of the governance structure and roles. This seems preferable to organizing an election committee that will have to be trained and will only need to exist for this year. Any students on the Subcommittee who intend to run for a Board position will not be permitted to participate in the running of the election. In subsequent years, each House will organize its own election. The Campus Life Coordinator and a Faculty Associate will be responsible for soliciting self-nominations from house members, and selecting students for a House Election Committee. There must be a minimum of two students on the Committee; anyone who is a candidate for office is not permitted to serve on the Committee.
The election process, this year and in subsequent years, will take place in the spring and involve three phases: 1) disseminating information about the new governance structure and positions; 2) soliciting self-nominations (name and written statement); 3) holding elections. Care must be given to solicit self-nominations from, and send absentee ballots to, students who are off campus during the spring semester.
The elections must be separate and simultaneous. At the election, any students who did not submit a self-nomination will be able to announce their candidacy as a write-in candidate; these students should be aware that they will have lost the opportunity to garner any absentee votes. All of the candidates, including those who did not submit self-nominations, will be required to give a short speech. All voting, except for absentee cases mentioned above, must be in person; on-line voting off location (i.e. not at the election site) will not be permitted.
The elections for the 2006-2007 academic year will be held in April of 2006Ñseparate and simultaneous elections will be organized over a special dinner to be catered by Dining Services (seniors will dine in a designated dining hall). The timetable for the election process is as follows: 1) information will be disseminated by this Subcommittee and the Office of Campus Life before the house draw and in the week before spring recess; 2) self-nominations will be due at the end of the first week of April; 3) elections will be held during the third week of April.
C. House Governing Board Procedures
1) Meeting Frequency
The Governing Board must meet at least two times a month. In practice, the Board will likely find that it needs to meet more often to conduct house business.
2) Meeting Procedures
At each Board meeting, there will be an open session at which any and all house members may respond to Board conversations and to address the Board with any concerns that they might have.
3) Attendance
A Board member who misses two meetings in a row, or a total of three meetings in one semester, may be removed from office.
4) Voting Procedures
The six voting members of the Board will be: President, House Life Coordinator, Historian, Treasurer, Community Liaison, and Faculty Associate. The four Faculty Associates will share one vote; the one vote will be divided equally among all Faculty Associates present at the meeting. The PresidentÕs vote breaks all ties.
All funding requests must be approved by a majority vote, with a quorum of 2/3 of the Board. Any spending out of the TreasurerÕs discretionary fund need not come to a vote, but the budget (including the amount allocated for the discretionary fund) must be approved by the Board at the beginning of the semester, with a majority vote and a quorum of 2/3 of the Board.
A motion to remove a member of the Board must be passed with a 2/3 vote, with all Board members in attendance.
5) Vacancies on the Board
An opening on the Board must be publicized to the entire house, and a house-wide election will be held to fill the vacant position.
D. Communication
The minutes of each Board meeting must be posted on the official house bulletin board and the house website.
E. Grievance Procedure
Any member of the house with grievances regarding the Board should approach the Campus Life Coordinator, who will be in the position to take the issue to the Director of Campus Life, as appropriate. The Director of Campus Life could then choose to take the matter to the Williams House System Advisory Committee (described in Section III below).
III. House Governance Oversight
We hope that the structures and procedures that we have created above will serve as a strong foundation for house governance, but we recognize that they may need to change to fit the evolution of the Williams House System and governance in practice. At the same time, this framework should not be altered without serious and careful consideration. Therefore, we recommend the creation of the Williams House System Advisory Committee to evaluate the functioning of the Williams House System and suggest changes as necessary, and to mediate any interhouse issues that may arise. We suggest that the Committee be composed of: House Presidents, President of the College Council (co-presidents will share one position on this Committee), Director of Campus Life, Faculty Representative from the CUL, and the Director of the Multicultural Center.
Williams House System Advisory Committee
House Presidents President of the College Council
Director of Campus Life CUL Faculty Representative Director of the MCC
This composition will ensure that students have the strongest voice on the committee, and that there also be input from the Office of Campus Life and the CUL. The Director of the MCC may take care not to make changes that will marginalize certain groups of students; there was discussion of filling this role with the President of MinCo, but it was decided that the Director will bring more continuity and institutional memory to this position.
The Committee will only meet on an ad hoc basis, when an issue arises. A meeting can be called by any member of the Committee.
All issues discussed by the Committee will be written up in a report that must be reviewed by the Dean of the College. In cases where a specific recommendation is put forward, the Dean of the College will make the final decision regarding its implementation.
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In conclusion, we recommend implementation of our suggestions to provide a strong foundation and framework for house governance that will help create a vibrant house community that taps into and supports the energies and interests of its many members.
Respectfully submitted,
Members of the Subcommittee on House Governance:
Eiko Maruko Siniawer, Assistant Professor of History and Chair
Ananda Burra Ô07, Student, MinCo
Morgan Goodwin Ô08, Student, CUL
Jonathan Prigoff Ô08, Student, House Coordinator
Benjamin Sykes Ô08, Student, College Council
Sara Ansell, Campus Life Coordinator
And Members of the Committee on Undergraduate Life:
Will Dudley, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Chair
Bevin Blaber Õ08, Student
Morgan Goodwin Õ08, Student
Brian Hirshman Õ06, Student
Seth Izen Õ08, Student
Peter Nurnberg Õ09, Student
Megan OÕMalley Õ06, Student
Matthew Simonson Õ08, Student
Nora Wong Õ09, Student
Tom Murtagh, Professor of Computer Science
Dave Paulsen, Assistant Professor of Physical Education
Marcela Villada Peacock, Program Coordinator, Multicultural Center
Eiko Maruko Siniawer, Assistant Professor of History
Tom Smith, Associate Professor of Chemistry
Doug Bazuin, Director of Campus Life, ex officio
Aaron Gordon, Assistant Director of Campus Life, ex officio