5. B. 1 The institution has and employs policies and procedures to engage its internal constituencies – including its governing board, administration, faculty, staff, and students – in the institution’s governance.
Miller College employs governance and administrative structures that promote collaborative decision-making and engage all internal constituencies. The administrative structure of the College begins with students and ends with the Board of Trustees, led by the College President. Students provide input to the governance of the College through participation in three student organizations, as well as through a number of regular feedback loops, including formal end-of-course evaluation surveys and periodic Student Services surveys and informal solicitations of student perspectives. Summaries of these formal and informal evaluations are shared with faculty and staff, and faculty advisors to student organizations report concerns raised by students to the faculty and staff in meetings of the Academic Affairs Committee and Student Services staff, who share membership with (and in turn report to) the President’s Council. While the Student Services staff and the Academic Affairs Committee provide a direct link to administration, additional committees inform College policy-making through more specialized reports. The Assessment Committee reports to Academic Affairs and the Enrollment and Retention Committee reports to the Director of Enrollment Management. The President’s Council meets to review recommendations and feedback from these committees and to draft policies and procedures that are then shared with the entire faculty and staff of the College at the College Forum, a committee of the whole that meets to ensure that all employees on campus are informed of (and have the opportunity to offer feedback on) recommended policy changes and updates to strategic initiatives. President’s Council recommendations are then voted upon by the Board of Trustees before final implementation. This structure supports a collaborative process which includes students, staff, faculty and administration with the oversight of the Board of Trustees.
Evidence:
Miller College’s operational calendar is innovatively designed for quick decision-making and dissemination of information to all college stakeholders. The President’s Council (comprised of the President, Dean of Student Services, Executive Director of Finance, Director of Administrative Services, Director of Institutional Advancement, Vice President and Deans), Academic Affairs Committee (comprised of the Vice President, Deans, Student Services representative, and all faculty), College Forum (a committee of the whole for the College) and the Assessment Committee are scheduled to meet in succession on a designated day each month. Shared governance of the College is accomplished as discussions of curriculum, calendar and College policy, among other priority items, are held in these meetings, with decisions and critical information passed from one committee to the next.
Evidence:
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