There are many ways that faculty serve the campus community. As articulated in the Criteria for Evaluation for Reappointment, Promotion, and Tenure (Chapter 9 of the Faculty Handbook):
[This work] is essential and complex in a residential institution. Participation in the intellectual and cultural life of the campus, promoting a culture of inclusivity and respect for diversity, effectiveness and cooperation in departmental and interdepartmental programs, and professionalism in dealing with colleagues and students are essential. The Committee [Teaching Staff & Tenure] recognizes contributions to the quality of student life, to faculty committees, to the realization of the College’s ideal of linking a liberal education with service, and to the enhancement of the institution beyond the campus.
Committee on Committees’ (CoC) charge is to run elections for Elected Committees (those listed in The Statute of Instruction, Chapter 1 of the Faculty Handbook) and to nominate faculty to serve on Appointed Committees (who are then confirmed by the faculty).
While faculty typically serve on only one of those committees, it is not uncommon for faculty to serve in multiple other capacities simultaneously, though it should be all of our goal to spread service commitments around among colleagues as equitably as possible. Other service often includes:
- Chairing Departments and Programs
- Service on Task Forces, Advisory Committees & Ad Hoc Committees that are not within the purview of Committee of Committees—often because they require terms longer than 1-2 years, must be filled at times that do not align with CoC’s appointment of faculty in April, require specific training or expertise that make only a small number of faculty eligible, and/or they are constituted by other means
- Participation on Search Committees, serving as External Search Committee members & Equity Advisors
- Advising Student Organizations, Advising students in “Pre-…” Programs
- Curriculum Committees, STEM Success Initiative, and Scholarship & Award Committees
- Organizing speaker series, colloquia, conferences, symposia, workshops & other events
- Coordinating Research Boot Camps, Faculty Learning Communities & Mentoring
- Support for Admissions, Advancement, Athletics, and other offices across campus
- Liaisons to off-campus organizations, scholarships, and grant agencies
- And myriad other formal, informal, and sometimes invisible capacities