Version: Dec. 24, 2024

1. Introduction

The Governing Council (GC) is the senior governing body for the school and has approval authority for schoolwide policy setting and other strategic activities.

The GC is chaired by the Dean and comprises all associate deans, unit leaders, Dean’s Office representatives, the elected chair of the School of Public Health (SPH) Faculty Senate, the elected chair of the SPH Staff Senate, and the chair of the Student Senate or a designated student representative.

The Governing Council is charged by the bylaws to “follow formal procedures … whenever it is considered a major strategic or policy decision.” This varies both over time and across issues. The bylaws are silent on GC operations. Therefore, this Charter aims to provide clarity on GC norms and operations, aiming for transparency and to help guide action.

This Charter is intended to be a living document. The contents may be reviewed and revised as needed, with the final approval of the Dean.

2. Roles and Responsibilities

As chair of the GC, it is the responsibility of the Dean to develop meeting agendas and provide relevant supporting materials, facilitate the meetings to encourage group discussion, and guide the decision-making process, and ensure that decisions/recommendations/action items are appropriately documented in meeting minutes.

It is the responsibility of GC members to

a. Prioritize regular attendance at meetings, prepare to contribute to discussion by reviewing materials provided prior to the meeting, and communicate to their various constituencies the messages that the GC agrees should be communicated to the community (see below).

b. Bring to the Dean and the GC’s attention issues that merit consideration and discussion by the GC, in a timely fashion.

c. Participate in GC conversations with the best interest of the school in mind. Therefore, while all members are part of GC by virtue of their unit affiliation, the expectation is that all members, when deliberating as part of the GC, are wearing a “school hat,” informed by insight from the various constituencies, but ultimately bringing a school-first perspective to all discussions.

3. Categories of Governing Council engagement

There are three broad categories of engagement around issues by GC

a. Inform. Information is presented to GC to inform the school leadership of ongoing work and activity. This serves a crucial step in schoolwide communication, wherein the GC assume responsibility for communicating out to their respective units and constituencies information about various achievements and activities.

b. Advise. The implementation and administration on matters within the bounds of routine operations rests with the Dean and their delegates — the associate deans and the unit directors. However, it benefits the school community to make sure that advice is gathered on a regular basis both on ongoing operations and any shifts in how we are doing what we are doing. Therefore, related and linked to information dissemination, the GC serves an important role in advising the Deans and unit directors on ongoing activities. The GC does not vote on matters that are presented for advice.

c. Discuss and approve. The GC is the body with final authority on approving any major new strategic, financial, or policy decision (e.g., a strategy map or a policy regarding operations). The line between “advise” and “discuss and approve” may not always be clear, but ultimately the intent is that matters that represent ongoing operations fall in the “advise” category, while any strategy or policy that represents a major shift in how we do what we do would be brought to GC for discussion and approval. As per the operational note above, the intent is to find a consensus way forward, with voting as appropriate.

4. Approval procedures

When considering a major new strategic, financial, or policy decision, it is important sometimes for GC to act while at other times it is both appropriate, and necessary, to obtain broader consultation from the school and other non-GC bodies (e.g., Faculty Senate or Staff Senate).

General guidelines on these circumstances are as follows

1. GC action. The GC will act when presented with the need for a strategic or policy shift that is time sensitive or where broader consultation would not advance the conversation.

2. GC soliciting broader feedback. The GC will solicit feedback from its various constituent groups when there is time for discussion and when discussion can be had that will serve both to inform and to engage the good ideas that are within the community. It is understood that such consultation shall happen in a timely fashion so as not to impede progress, within a 30-day window. The GC shall operate principally as a consensus body, but where topics require resolution that eludes consensus, votes shall be taken and recorded, operating on a majority vote rule of all present. A quorum for the purposes of a vote shall be considered at least 50% of GC members present.

5. Exceptions

It is understood that the school needs to have the flexibility to adapt to changing circumstances and there will be occasions when the Dean needs to act quickly, or on information that is privileged, to fulfill their “oversight over all educational, research, and service programs and over the administrative and budgetary aspects of the School” as specified in the by-laws. It is also understood that these norms of GC operations are guidelines, and not established as binding policy. It is further understood, perhaps most importantly, that the norms of a school should focus around consultative, shared, and transparent governance as much as possible and that the intent is for the GC to operate as a collegial body, working closely as a unit to further the best interests of the school. These intentions and aspirations matter over and above all else.

6. Confidentiality and communication

The GC needs to be able to operate as a productive deliberative body, whether it is engaged in conversations where it is advising or discussing/approving particular approaches. In order to do this, it is important that all members of GC can feel free to speak their minds, without worry that comments made in the spirit of discussion and inquiry are repeated outside the room and heard by others out of context. Therefore, the assumption is that all conversations within GC are entirely confidential. At each GC meeting the group shall articulate “key messages” from the meeting that the group agrees can, and indeed should, be communicated out. These messages will be summarized in the minutes and all members will communicate these out to their various constituencies.

7. Membership

In the case of a vacancy on Governing Council, an interim representative will be designated as appropriate.