Resolution Calling for a Revised Committee Structure for the University of Hawaiʻi Board of Regents (BOR)

Updates

Presented to the Mānoa Faculty Senate by the Senate Executive Committee (SEC) for a vote of the full Senate on December 14, 2016. A resolution calling for a revised committee structure for the University of Hawai‘i Board of Regents. Approved by the Mānoa Faculty Senate on December 14, 2016 with 31 votes in support; 8 votes opposed; and 3 abstentions.

RESOLUTION CALLING FOR A REVISED COMMITTEE STRUCTURE
FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI′I BOARD OF REGENTS (BOR)

WHEREAS, a university functions best when students, faculty, administration, and staff are empowered to communicate directly with the governing board; and

WHEREAS, the Longanecker report recommended clarification of the lines of authority to support clearer communication and governance of the campuses vis-à-vis the University of Hawaii System; and

WHEREAS, the purpose of a governing board is to enact policies that optimally facilitate the mission of the university they oversee; and

WHEREAS, the voice of faculty, students, and key stakeholders provides information that can lead to more effective governance; and

WHEREAS, the community college system has missions that are fundamentally distinct from those of four year colleges and research universities; therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED, that the University of Hawaii Board of Regents should enact a new structure to better support the various missions of the university system whereby the chancellors of UH Mānoa, UH Hilo, and UH West Oahu each report directly to a subcommittee of the board focused on the four-year
campuses, and the current Vice President for Community Colleges reports directly to a subcommittee of the BoR focused on the two-year campuses; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that authority over individual campuses be delegated to individual chancellors of the four-year institutions and the Vice President for the Community Colleges with direct oversight by the relevant committee of the BoR; and

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, that each subcommittee shall have one faculty member who is a senate chair chosen from amongst the chairs of the faculty senates to serve as a non-voting member of the subcommittee.