Purpose
- Forum for the dean to share and receive staff feedback on college policies and initiatives
- Opportunity for staff to share ideas/feedback for leadership’s consideration
- Confidential committee of trust for discussing topics that are still actively being considered by college leadership
Expectations of committee members
- Maintain confidentiality
- Actively engage in the committee meetings, contributing their voice and ideas to the process
- Attend all meetings of the committee, with support from their immediate supervisor in terms of workload management
- Listen to other staff in their department/center/unit for topics and concerns to share up with leadership, and, if directed, solicit feedback from college staff
- Estimated time commitment for one year of service would be 10 to 15 hours
- One or two 90-minute meetings a semester, including summer
- Time for advance prep, follow-up tasks, or sub-group work as needed
- One half-day at college leadership work session
Structure
- Led by a staff chair selected by the committee, with an ongoing staff member (assistant to the dean) who provides administrative support and continuity
- Composed of 8 to 10 staff members (full- or at least 50%-time)
- To reflect multiple areas of the college and ensure that a broad cross-section of staff voices are heard, the committee membership will include at least one representative from all of the following:
- Research center
- Each academic department
- Student Services Center
- College of Education administrative units (e.g., Business Services, OII, Development)
- Both A&P and classified positions
- Current college representatives to UT’s Staff Council are invited to liaise or serve ex officio
Nomination process
- Annual communication will go out in late spring to solicit nominations
- Supervisor nominations:
- Supervisors may nominate after confirming interest from staff member by sending a short email to their immediate supervisor that provides (1) a brief summary of the person’s job duties and (2) a description of why they think this person should serve
- Nomination threads would move up the supervisory chain to chair or college unit director, who would then select no more than two or three to submit to the dean
- Self-nominations:
- Staff member may self-nominate, with approval from immediate supervisor, by sending a short email to their supervisor that provides (1) a brief summary of their job duties and (2) a description of why they would like to serve and the strengths they would bring to the committee
- Nomination threads would move up the supervisory chain to chair or college unit director, who would then select no more than two or three to submit to the dean
- Dean may then invite additional comments from supervisor
- Dean may solicit additional nominations from chairs/directors to ensure that all of the staff representation listed above is included
- Dean’s Team and staff development team (CBO, HR director, assistant to the dean) would serve as consultative committee to make recommendations
- Dean makes a final determination on the committee membership slate, considering the overall diversity of roles represented on the committee to ensure as broad a reach as possible
- Over time, recommendations should take into consideration that all offices and centers are being represented
Meetings
- The schedule of meetings for the year will be arranged at the start of each term to maximize members’ participation
- Agendas will be prepared by committee chair and staff support in consultation with the dean
- Rather than observing a formal governance structure, the committee will make informal recommendations on potential policies and initiatives before they are brought to finalization by the college’s leadership team
- Frequency:
- One or two meetings a semester, including summer
- One separate end-of-term celebration/thank you lunch that may include other members of the college leadership
- One half-day college leadership work session
Term of service
- A minimum one-year commitment from all members
- A maximum term of three years
- Toward the end of each committee cycle, current members have option to rotate off or continue
- Each year’s number of new candidates will be determined by how many seats need to be filled
- Process can be evaluated and updated once the committee is more established
- Should a staff member leave the college or no longer be able to serve, the dean may choose to fill their seat for the remainder of the term through a nomination or direct appointment
Please send suggested additions to this page and notifications about broken links to COE-HR@austin.utexas.edu.
Contributors to this page (Name, number of updates, most recent update):
Karla Steffen 3 (80 days ago)