SKIDMORE COLLEGE

Committee for Educational Policies and Planning - Operating Code:

Function: To recommend to the faculty and administration short and long-range educational plans for the College and thus be instrumental in clarifying, improving and changing major policies and educational procedures; to evaluate Skidmore's present practices and goals. The CEPP shall exchange minutes of meetings with the Admissions and Student Aid Committee, Curriculum Committee, and the UWW Committee; and the Chairs of any of these committees may be invited to sit with CEPP when consultation is desirable. The Chair of CEPP also shall sit on the Institutional Planning Committee. The CEPP meets annually, and whenever necessary in the pursuit of its functions, with the appropriate committee of the Board of Trustees.

Membership: Six faculty members, two of whom must be tenured, each from a different department, elected to serve three-year terms, the Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculty, the Dean of Student Affairs, and two students selected by SGA. CEPP may appoint such subcommittees from among its members or from the College community at large as it deems helpful to facilitate its work.

Operating Procedures:

Long-term Planning: CEPP will remain mindful of the need for long-range educational plans for the college. In consultation with other important bodies at the college, CEPP will develop and pursue efforts to address the most important agenda items. At the end of each school year, a tentative plan will be made for the next year. The plan will be reexamined and refined at the beginning of the next year. CEPP members will make ongoing efforts to define an agenda that is informed by broad consultation. New members of CEPP will be expected to familiarize themselves with the complexities of such agendas both in terms of dynamics at Skidmore and on the national scene. CEPP members will seek out and arrange for access to informative materials and experiences (e.g., AAC&C website/documents, workshops, conferences, retreats, etc.) relevant to generating educational policy. Recognizing that CEPP is challenged by the long-term goals and needs of the institution combined with relatively short-term service on the part of members, the committee will take whatever steps it can to provide continuity and stability in terms of how the committee functions. The Chair will maintain a long-term archive, which will be handed off to each new Chair. Important documents and minutes will be stored in the electronic CEPP archive (at cepp-list-web).

Meetings: CEPP generally meets weekly. When possible, decisions are reached by consensus. A committee member can request a formal vote of the committee. Discussions may be confidential. All decisions related to educational planning and policy will be documented and available through publicly archived minutes. Faculty members of CEPP, with the exception of the Chair, will take turns keeping minutes. Copies of minutes will generally be made available to the committee before the next meeting by way of email (i.e., cepp-list) and/or hardcopies. At the meeting after a given set of minutes are taken, they will be reviewed, amended if necessary and approved by the committee. After that, an electronic version will be sent to the electronic CEPP archives (i.e., cepp-list-web), and in compliance with the Faculty Handbook will be available to the Admissions and Student Aid Committee, Curriculum Committee, and the UWW Committee, as well as the college community in general.

Consultation: CEPP will utilize as many resources and avenues (e.g., surveys, email correspondence, individual interaction, special meetings, special faculty meetings, faculty meetings, Student Government Association meetings) as necessary to ensure extensive, widespread and high quality consultation take place during all major initiatives. CEPP will meet each year with the Dean of the Faculty's Office to discuss long-term planning and goals. Whenever proper procedures or practices concerning faculty governance are in question, CEPP will consult with the Committee on Faculty Governance for guidance.

Chair: Before the end of the school year, the outgoing Chair, in consultation with other members of the committee, will arrange for a relatively experienced member of the committee to become Chair the following year. The transition of chairship will take place at the end of the school year so that the incoming Chair has the summer to plan for the following year's agenda. The spring before the committee undertakes a major initiative (e.g., revising the core curriculum) CEPP will seek a course release for its Chair.With some consultation, the chair will offer a specific agenda for each meeting. As appropriate, agenda items may come from committee members, academic departments, the offices of the Dean of Studies, Vice President for Academic Affairs and the Dean of The Faculty, the Dean of Student Affairs, Admissions and Student Aid Committee, Curriculum Committee, the UWW Committee, Student Government Association, or other relevant parties.

Regular Business: CEPP reviews and approves all affiliated or Skidmore study-abroad programs. CEPP reviews the Skidmore calendar and makes appropriate recommendations on scheduling.
The Chair of CEPP will communicate with the Dean of the Faculty's Office to keep cepp-list updated. In addition to the members of CEPP, the Registrar and the Dean of Studies will remain on the email list. The Chair of CEPP will attend Committee of Committee meetings as well as Institutional Planning Committee meetings.

All-College Curriculum: CEPP represents the faculty in policy decisions regarding the ongoing review and revision of the College's general education requirements. Any substantive revision of the curriculum must generally entail at least two years of planning, including the formal process of offering a motion on the faculty floor. Devising a sensible and coherent plan for changing all college requirements should be based on a highly inclusive process of consultation with broad consideration for educational goals, recent trends in the delivery of college requirements (e.g., availability of seats, offerings, etc.), the limitations of scarce resources, and especially the will of the faculty. Such planning requires detailed timelines for gathering data, drafting text and consulting with numerous parties multiple times. Changes to these requirements are considered major policy and must be approved by the faculty in a vote on the faculty floor after the requisite lay-over. Matters relating to the implementation of approved changes are considered routine business and may be either set in motion directly by CEPP or approved by the faculty in instances where consultation seems necessary or desirable. Since they are not major policy, implementation plans may be approved in the same meeting in which they are introduced.