At the March 13, 2002 faculty meeting, the faculty voted to overhaul the college committee structure to increase the impact and efficiency of the committees, and reduce overlap in committees.

Currently, 27 faculty serve on five standing committees. Since many people are not willing to take on the additional responsibilities that go with being a committee member, the Faculty Advisory Council finds it hard to find volunteers and the committee workload is distributed unevenly. The FAC hopes that the changes will reduce the total number of committee slots while safeguarding the role of faculty in college governance. The FAC also hopes to increase communication between the faculty and the administration.

Karine Moe, FAC chair, said that the reaction to the proposed changes was positive. She said that though some of the faculty did voice concerns, most were in favor of the changes and the proposal passed unanimously.

The current five standing committees are the Faculty Personnel Committee (FPC), Faculty Advisory Council (FAC), Curriculum Committee (CC), Long Range Planning (LRP), and Faculty Professional Activities Committee (FPAC). Three new standing committees have replaced the five committees: the Faculty Personnel Committee (FPC), Educational Policy and Governance Committee (EPAG), and the Resources and Planning Committee (RPC). These changes will be implemented next fall.

The Faculty Advisory Council developed the proposal with input from the Task force on Academic Quality and Program Structure and individual faculty members. The proposal was presented and made open to discussion and criticism at the February faculty meeting.