Dear colleagues,

As AUS enters its tenth year of existence, it can rightfully celebrate its many achievements and reflect on its various strengths. I think one can objectively state that one way that AUS distinguishes itself from the multitude of institutions of higher education in the region is the existence of a Faculty Senate, which entails a wholly different approach for policy making, faculty work and life on campus, and modes of interaction between the administration and the faculty (as well as with staff and students in other venues).

Indeed, the existence of a faculty senate implies a “shared governance” approach to policy making, at least with regard to faculty issues. The administration (from the chancellor to deans and department heads) and the faculty (represented by the senators and particularly the senate executive committee) work as partners in the process of formulating policies that concern and affect faculty, such as hiring, evaluations, contract decisions, housing allocation, fringe benefits. It is thus important to fully realize that the senate’s role is that of partner to the administration in (joint) policy formulations. Proposals of new or modified policies can start with the administration, which then formulates a draft and submits it to the senate for review and feedback, or they can start with the senate – or even come from the faculty at large – then get submitted to the administration as recommended policies. The latter then get reviewed by the appropriate administrators (through such bodies as the council of deans for academic issues), and this mutual review and modification process continues until the two sides have converged toward an acceptable formulation.

The senate works through two main mechanisms: the senate standing committees, which review and draft newly proposed or modified policies, and the senate executive committee (SEC), which acts as both the review board for everything that comes from the standing committees or from the administration and decides on the following course of action on each item. The senate floor receives items that the SEC deems ready to be voted on (after due discussion) by the senators.

Finally, the senate occasionally organizes discussion forums or workshops on specific issues of direct relevance to the faculty (such as evaluation) or hosts talks by invited speakers (the latest one being on the example on the experience of “American universities” in the region).

Many faculty members expect the senate to act as the defender of their rights. Concerns of various kinds are regularly received by the senate president.  Among these, some are substantial enough to be forwarded to the appropriate standing committee or brought up in an SEC meeting for action or review while other complaints are directly forwarded to the relevant administrators.
It must be realized though that the senate has no executive power; all it can do is help formulate policies that will prevent the occurrence of problems for the faculty or insist with the administration that such problems, when they occur, be addressed and rectified as best and as fast as possible.

The AUS faculty senate has now existed for 6 years, and in this short period it has had a very rich experience representing the faculty and interacting with the administration on a variety of issues. Both the tapping of the tremendous talents and brain powers among the faculty members and the adherence to an open, transparent, and democratic process are exciting experiences that we all feel highly privileged to be undergoing. It is truly a model of interaction among the constituencies of any higher education institution.

Best regards.
Nidhal Guessoum
AUS Faculty Senate President
2006-2007

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