Shared Governance is a collaborative process wherein University stakeholders—administration, faculty, staff, and students—together advance the mission of the University as a community dedicated to excellence in teaching, scholarship, and service. The process of shared governance is intended to promote the discernment of the best policies to meet the needs of our University community.

Shared Governance affects every member of the University, including the administration, faculty, staff, and students. Issues ranging from curriculum changes to investing protocol are discussed and debated within the Shared Governance system. You should become involved with Shared Governance to introduce new ideas or policy proposals, to voice an opinion on proposed or existing policies, and to become more informed about policies that impact your work at the University.

Shared Governance is an open and collaborative process of governance. Policy ideas and suggestions are welcome at every level—they can be forwarded directly to the University Coordinating Committee (UCC) or to the appropriate University Policy Committee (UPC), or can be offered directly by members of specific UPCs.

Each Elected Representative Body and Council represents a major constituency within the University. The three groups that fill seats on Shared Governance University Policy Committees are the Faculty Council, Staff Council, and Unified Student Government. These groups meet regularly to share ideas and to promote policies that positively impact their constituency.

University Policy Committees (UPCs) are groups composed of a mixture of administrators, faculty, staff, and students that work together to recommend and monitor the effectiveness of major policies and strategic initiatives. There is a UPC for each of seven major areas: academic affairs, faculty affairs, student affairs, staff affairs, strategic planning, budgeting and finance, and research. 

UPC members collaborate to create policies within their designated area, to evaluate existing policies, to listen to suggestions from members of the University community, and to share critical information and input. A UPC also reviews matters or issues assigned by the University Coordinating Committee.

Elected Representative Bodies and Councils are not “policy” committees because, by definition, they exclude other constituencies from their membership (ie. faculty are members of Faculty Council, not Staff Council). Shared Governance is a collaborative system which seeks to determine policies that are best and most appropriate for the institution as a whole, rather than for one specific constituency.

University Policy Committees include faculty, staff, students, and administrators. A list of current Committees and their memberships can be found at: www.luc.edu/sharedgovernance/committees.shtml.

You should contact the UPC that corresponds to your idea, ie. if you have an idea that impacts the academic curriculum, you should contact the Academic Affairs University Policy Committee. For information on the purpose and charge of each UPC, visit www.luc.edu/sharedgovernance/charter.shtml

University Policy Committee meet a minimum of twice a semester during the academic year. Based on the volume of policies they are discussing, some Committees meet more often.

To find out what issues are being discussed at the University Policy Committee level, you can access meeting agendas and minutes and/or contact either the chair of the University Coordinating Committee (Chuck Webber at cwebber@lumc.edu) or the chair of the specific University Policy Committee you are interested in (www.luc.edu/sharedgovernance/membership.shtml).

The University Coordinating Committee (UCC) supervises and coordinates the selection of members to UPCs and ensures the responsible, efficient, and effective workflow of each UPC. The Committee monitors the resolution of all issues charged to UPCs and ensures proper notification to all interested and affected parties. Membership of the UCC includes the chairs of Faculty Council and Staff Council as well as the President of Unified Student Government.

To find out which issues are being discussed at the University Coordinating Committee level, you can access meeting agendas and minutes or contact the chair of the University Coordinating Committee (Chuck Webber at cwebber@lumc.edu) directly. Additionally, the UCC works with the Department of University Marketing and Communication to regularly update the University community on Shared Governance activities via e-mail and through University publications. The UCC also publishes an annual summary report each June that details University Policy Committee policy discussions over the course of the last year, and it is available at: www.luc.edu/sharedgovernance/summary_issueandpolicy.shtml.