Committees

Faculty participate in the governance of Amherst College through their actions in meetings of the faculty and through service on committees of the faculty, committees of the college, committees of the Amherst College Board of Trustees, ad hoc committees, and Five-College committees. For purposes of committee membership, candidates will normally be selected from the ranks of full-time and part-time tenure-line faculty. Committee service is expected of all tenure-line faculty, except for those in their first year. At Amherst, retiring members of committees are normally not reappointed or re-elected to that committee for at least one year (voted by the faculty, May 19, 2016).  Committees and appointed faculty members.

1. Committees of the Faculty

Faculty Committee Membership The right to serve on the Faculty Executive Committee and the right to vote for members of that committee are limited to professors, associate professors, and assistant professors appointed to full-time or part-time tenure-line positions. The committee chooses its chair from among its tenured members. The president of the college and the provost and dean of the faculty serve on the committee ex officio and without vote. The right to serve on the Tenure and Promotion Committee is limited to tenured members of the faculty. The right to vote for members of that committee is limited to professors, associate professors, and assistant professors appointed to full-time or part-time tenure-line positions. The president serves as chair of the committee, and the provost and dean of the faculty serves as secretary. The faculty members of the Committee of Educational Policy, Community Standards Review Board, the College Council, the Committee on Priorities and Resources and the Committee on Adjudication are elected by the faculty after nomination by the Faculty Executive Committee or after nomination from the floor. Faculty members of other regular committees of the faculty are appointed by the Faculty Executive Committee, usually for two- or three-year terms. Faculty members of college committees and/or of ad hoc committees may be appointed by the president of the college, with the advice of the Faculty Executive Committee, or may be elected by the faculty following the balloting system used for the Faculty Executive Committee.  

 a. The Committee on Academic Standing and Special Majors This committee is co-chaired by the chief student affairs officer and a member of the faculty appointed by the Faculty Executive Committee. Two additional members of the faculty are appointed by the Faculty Executive Committee for two-year terms. The three members of the faculty shall preferably include one each from the humanities, the social sciences, and the natural sciences. The committee acts on cases involving the dismissal and readmission of students who have failed to perform academically according to the standards of the college. It also administers the programs of Interdisciplinary Study, Independent Study, and Field Study. When the committee meets to consider matters of academic standing, the chief student affairs officer serves as chair; when the committee meets to consider student proposals for special majors, the designated faculty member serves as chair.

Proposals for special majors are considered by a subcommittee consisting of the three faculty members and the chief student affairs officer, ex officio. On matters of academic standing, the committee consists of three faculty members, the chief student affairs officer, the dean of students, the class deans, and the dean of financial aid, with the registrar serving as secretary of the committee, ex officio.

For matters of academic standing, the charge to the committee is as follows:

(1) The committee shall consider the standing of students in serious academic difficulty at the middle and end of each semester, and shall decide which students will be placed on or removed from academic probation.

(2) The committee shall decide which students shall be dismissed for reasons of unsatisfactory academic performance and what conditions need be met by such students to be readmitted to the college.

(3) The committee shall pass on all cases of readmission of students who were dismissed for unsatisfactory academic performance.

Students in good academic standing who take educational leave from the college temporarily to pursue a course of study at another institution need not apply for readmission. Their cases will be reviewed only if exceptional or unusual circumstances have led to academic failure during the period of educational leave.

Students in good academic standing who voluntarily take a leave of absence will normally not need to apply for readmission.

Students who have been dismissed or who have withdrawn for solely disciplinary reasons will be considered for readmission by members of the Office of Student Affairs.

b. The Committee on Adjudication The Committee of Adjudication consists of eight members of the faculty, serving three year terms, staggered to ensure continuity. Nominations are made by the Faculty Executive Committee, but additional nominations may be made from the floor during the faculty meeting at which the members of this committee are elected by a majority of those present and voting. The Committee on Adjudication annually chooses its own chair.

The Committee on Adjudication has several duties.
1. It provides the Hearing Board in cases involving dismissal, suspension from service for a stated period, demotion in rank, or deprivation of pay, for cause.
2. It serves as the Faculty Grievance Committee. 
3. It provides faculty members of the Hearing Board and the Appeal Board in cases of student grievance against members of the faculty.

(1) The Faculty Executive Committee will select from the membership of the Committee on Adjudication a three member Hearing Board in cases of dismissal, suspension, demotion in rank, or deprivation of pay for cause brought by the provost and dean of the faculty.

(2) Where a member of the faculty has failed to resolve a grievance informally, the faculty member may then file a complaint with the chair of the Committee on Adjudication. The committee's procedure for determining whether to hear the complaint and for establishing a Hearing Board are described in the Faculty Handbook section on Grievance Procedures for Members of the Faculty.

(3) In cases of student grievance against a faculty member, the chair of the committee shall appoint three faculty from among its members to a Hearing Board. Should it be necessary, the chair of the committee shall, with one other member appointed by him or her, serve as the faculty members of an Appeal Board. The procedures therefore are described in the Faculty Handbook section on Resolution of Student Grievances with Members of the Faculty.

If a member of the committee is disqualified for any reason from such service, he or she will be replaced by another member of the Committee on Adjudication. In exceptional cases where no alternative member of the committee is available, the Faculty Executive Committee will appoint a substitute from the faculty at large.

c. The Committee on Admission and Financial Aid The Committee on Admission and Financial Aid consists of four members of the faculty appointed by the Faculty Executive Committee for three-year terms, four students serving two-year terms to be chosen as described below and, as members, ex officio, the dean of admission and financial aid (secretary of the committee), the dean of admission, the dean of financial aid, and the chief student affairs officer. One of the faculty members is appointed by the Faculty Executive Committee as chair, normally after a year of service. It is hoped that different areas of the curriculum will be represented by the faculty members on the committee. The president will meet with the committee either at its invitation or on his or her initiative.

A College Committee on Admission and Financial Aid will convene under the chairmanship of the dean of admission and financial aid at least four times in each academic year. It will consist of the provost and dean of the faculty, ex officio, and eight voting members: the dean of admission and financial aid, the dean of admission, the dean of financial aid, the chief student affairs officer, and the four faculty members on the Committee on Admission and Financial Aid. At a meeting early in the fall of each year, the College Committee on Admission and Financial Aid will review the composition and diversity of the first-year class, paying attention to such issues as the distribution of students by curricular and extracurricular strengths. The committee will re-convene in advance of the release of notifications of admission to early decision candidates (normally in December) and prior to the release of notifications of admission to regular round candidates (normally in March) to consider such information as it deems necessary to insure that the college's stated policies are being implemented. At the end of each of these meetings the committee will vote on the admission actions recommended by the dean of admission and financial aid. The committee will hold a final meeting at the end of the academic year to review the outcome of the completed admission process (voted by the faculty, December, 1999).

Two students shall be elected by the student body for a two-year term to the Committee on Admission and Financial Aid. Following the election, the dean of admission and financial aid in consultation with the Committee on Admission and Financial Aid will appoint two additional student members for two-year terms. The four student positions are to be filled in staggered order, with one appointed and one elected position to be filled annually.

Because of Amherst College's commitment to equal opportunity and the role of the admission process in meeting an important part of this commitment, the presence on the committee of students from different minority and racial groups is especially valuable. In general, student members of the committee can provide particular advice on policy discussions about recruitment.

The primary function of the committee is to enhance communication between the faculty and appropriate administrative offices and in so doing to aid the faculty in carrying out its responsibility to formulate standards and policy for admission and financial aid. To these ends, the committee should review on a regular basis, through observation and quantitative studies, how adequately policy and practice are meeting stated goals, should develop and maintain mechanisms for communicating faculty opinion on the quality of our students to the staff, and should report annually to the faculty on the committee's work. Members of the committee should be sufficiently engaged in the admission process to enable them to carry out their responsibilities effectively (voted by the faculty, September 1984).

d. The College Council The College Council is composed of three members of the faculty, two or three members of the administration, and five students. The faculty members of the College Council are nominated by the Faculty Executive Committee and elected at large by the faculty. They serve for two-year terms. Two members of the College Council will normally be elected each year, so that the terms will overlap. The chief student affairs officer and dean of students serve on the College Council ex officio without vote. One or two other members of the Office of Student Affairs are appointed annually by the president. Of the five students, three are members-at-large from the freshman, sophomore and junior class elected each spring to serve throughout the following academic year. The president of the student government serves ex officio without vote during the academic year. At the end of the first semester, the first-year class elects a representative to serve during the following two semesters.

The chair of the College Council is one of the three faculty members nominated for that post by the Faculty Executive Committee and elected specifically as chair by the faculty for a one-year term.

Subject to the reserved powers of the president and the Amherst College Board of Trustees, the College Council is the body to approve and determine policy in three areas: extracurricular faculty-student relations, the review of recommendations involving the Statement of Intellectual Responsibility, and social regulations for student residential and social life.

In addition, the College Council possesses power to make recommendations concerning a wide range of subjects that touch the joint interests of students, faculty and administration.

The College Council will not act as a review board to make decisions or recommendations in individual cases involving academic requirements and standards for granting degrees or involving the implementation of such academic requirements and standards. The College Council will not discuss and will not make recommendations to any group on particular personnel decisions in the faculty or administration.

e. College Housing Committee The College Housing Committee advises the administration on the general principles and rules of equity governing the housing program of the college. The committee consists of four members of the faculty serving two-year terms and the following ex officio non-voting members: the chief financial and administrative officer (and/or that person’s designee), an associate provost and associate dean of the faculty, the senior director of human resources strategy and operations, the director of rental housing management, and the executive director of campus operations.  In making appointments to the Housing Committee, the Faculty Executive Committee tries to ensure that various faculty interests are represented: married-single; younger-older; home owners and those in college housing.

f. Community Standards Review Board The board will consist of four elected student members; fifteen or more selected student members, representing a pluralism of identities and class years; four members of the faculty; and the dean of students, or that person’s designee, who serves as the chair, ex officio, without vote.  The faculty members of the Community Standards Review Board (CSRB) will be elected during a meeting of the faculty after nomination by the Faculty Executive Committee or after nomination from the floor.  They will normally serve three-year terms, and their terms, when possible, will be staggered so as to maintain continuity from year to year.  Incidents regarding violations of the Student Code of Conduct may be adjudicated by a hearing panel.  Members will serve on CSRB panels.

Membership on the Board 

The pool from which a CSRB panel is drawn will consist of approximately nineteen students and four members of the faculty.  The dean of students, or that person’s designee, will ordinarily serve as non-voting chair.  The director of community standards, or that person’s designee, will serve as record keeper.

The dean is joined by five voting panel members, three students, and two faculty members.  Under certain circumstances, the dean of students, or that person’s designee, is authorized to convene ad hoc panels, as described here, if necessary.

Student members of the CSRB will be chosen either by an election conducted by the middle of the second semester of each academic year by the Association of Amherst Students (AAS) or by a selection process administered by the Office of Student Affairs.  The AAS will oversee the following procedures:

1. The election will be conducted according to the procedures outlined in the code of elections.  The four candidates, with no more than two of the four candidates representing the same gender identity, who receive the highest number of votes will be elected.  If this procedure cannot be followed because of an insufficient number of candidates, then the College Council will appoint a student to any position unfilled by election.

2. If one of the elected students resigns, the AAS will appoint an alternate, and the alternate will be of the same gender identity as the student who resigned when possible.  In the event elected students are not available, and substitutes are required to maintain the quorum for a case, a substitute will normally be appointed by the chair of the College Council.

3. Additional students are appointed via a selection process administered by the Office of Student Affairs.

Student members will begin their two-year term on July 1 of the year of their election.

At the beginning of each academic year, the dean of students, or that person's designee, will schedule training for all members of the CSRB.  In consultation with the board, the dean of students, or that person's designee, may, from time to time, schedule other such training to assist the board.

 Ad hoc Panels

The CSRB is active only when classes are in session; there are no regularly scheduled hearings during final examinations or recesses.  Occasionally, however, circumstances may prompt a complainant or respondent to request an expedited resolution during a period when the CSRB is inactive.  In these circumstances, the dean of students, or that person’s designee, is authorized to provide voluntary, alternative mechanisms for conflict resolution, including constituting ad hoc panels, provided both parties to the conflict consent to the voluntary alternative.  Ad hoc panels may comprise Amherst college students or faculty, who need not be members of the CSRB.  Panel compositions may be adjusted at the discretion of the dean of students, or that person’s designee.  Relevant policies and procedures will be reviewed with ad hoc panel members prior to their service.

Appeal

Either the respondent or the complainant may appeal a decision by the CSRB, the dean of students, or the director of community standards.  All intellectual responsibility appeals and appeals of a decision of a CSRB panel are directed to the dean of the faculty.  Appeals of non-intellectual responsibility-related decisions made by the director of community standards, or that person's designee (administrative adjudicator), are directed to the chief student affairs officer.  An appeal may come forward based on the following grounds: bias shown during any part of the student conduct process; material procedural error; the inappropriateness of the sanction (respondent only); or the discovery of substantive new evidence that was not available at the time the decision was made.

The respondent or the complainant must submit a written statement of appeal to the provost and dean of the faculty or chief student affairs officer, as appropriate, which must state the grounds and reason for the appeal, within ten business days of the date of the written finding.  Upon receipt of the statement of appeal, the dean of the faculty or chief student affairs officer will review the official records of the dean of students, director of community standards or the board’s proceeding, and other materials bearing on the case as necessary.  The provost and dean of the faculty or chief student affairs officer may interview the parties to the dispute or anyone else involved in the hearing process, including the panel members.

For an appeal of an intellectual responsibility decision by the dean of students or the director of community standards, the provost and dean of the faculty may refer the case to a panel of the CSRB, consisting of two faculty members, one of whom will act as chair, and one student.  For an appeal of a decision by the CSRB, the provost and dean of the faculty may refer the case back to the original panel with instructions or may direct that the case be reviewed or reheard by a different panel of the CSRB.  In the case of any such referral, the panel of the CSRB will report its findings and recommendations to the provost and dean of the faculty, who will resolve the appeal.

For any appeal, the provost and dean of the faculty or chief student affairs officer will render a decision with such terms as the provost and dean of the faculty or chief student affairs officer determines to be appropriate.  The provost and dean of the faculty’s or chief student affairs officer’s decision is final, and no further appeal will be permitted (voted by the faculty November 2017).

g. The Committee on Educational Policy (voted by the faculty, December 2006). The Committee on Educational Policy (CEP) is composed of five faculty members, each serving a three-year term; the provost and dean of the faculty, ex officio, without vote; and three student members, each serving a two-year term. The humanities, the social sciences and the natural sciences must be represented on the committee, by both faculty members and student members. Each year the committee chooses its own chair and secretary from among its five faculty members.  A researcher appointed by the provost and dean of the faculty informs and supports the work of the CEP. The chair sets the committee's agenda. The minutes of the CEP’s meetings are circulated to the faculty and staff of the college. There is a general expectation of confidentiality in regard to the minutes. The minutes should not be shared with anyone who is not officially entitled to receive them (voted by the faculty May 1, 2018). Nominations of the faculty members for the Committee on Educational Policy are made by the Faculty Executive Committee and reported to the faculty in advance of the faculty meeting at which they are to be elected.

Additional nominations may be made from the floor at the meeting. Candidates must receive the approval of a majority of the eligible voting members of the faculty present at the meeting in order to be elected. Ideally, two members of the Committee on Educational Policy should be elected in two out of three years, and one member elected in the third. In this way, overlapping terms will create a continuity of membership. The student members of the committee are elected for two-year terms, two members being elected in one year, and a third in the other, alternately.

All members of the faculty are eligible to serve on the Committee on Educational Policy, with the same exceptions as govern eligibility for the Faculty Executive Committee.

The Committee on Educational policy is expected to review and evaluate, and to report to the faculty on, the general educational policy of the college; to consider suggestions from departments or from individual faculty members or students relating to changes in educational policy, including proposals for new courses, new programs, and altered major programs or honors requirements; and to make recommendations to the Faculty Executive Committee and the faculty. The Committee on Educational Policy advises the president and the provost and dean of the faculty about the allocation of faculty positions to departments. In making recommendations for such allocations, the committee considers, inter alia, the curricular needs of individual departments and the commitment of departments to offer courses that meet identified college-wide priorities and curricular needs.  The CEP also maintains the college calendar, in consultation with the registrar and subject to the ultimate approval of the faculty (voted by the faculty, March 21, 2017).

h. The Faculty Computer Committee The Faculty Computer Committee consists of three faculty members appointed by the Faculty Executive Committee for two-year terms and one student member elected by the student government. In addition, the chief information officer of Information Technology (IT), the director of Academic Technology Services (ATS), and the director of the library are ex officio members without vote. One of the faculty members serves as chair. The committee advises the director of IT and the director of ATS on topics related to the use of computer technology in support of research and instruction and on other IT issues affecting the academic life of the college. One member of the committee serves as a faculty representative to the College's Internet Strategy Group (voted by the faculty, November 2007).

i. The Faculty Executive Committee The Faculty Executive Committee consists of five members of the faculty. Three of the members are tenured and two are tenure track. Tenured members serve for a term of two years.  The tenure-track members serve for a term of one year. The terms of the tenured members are staggered to ensure membership continuity. The president and the provost and dean of the faculty serve on the committee ex officio and without vote. One of the tenured members serves as chair of the committee for a term of one year, setting the committee’s agenda in consultation with other members and chairing committee meetings. 

The Faculty Executive Committee’s responsibilities include the following: 

  • advising the administration, and the faculty as a whole, on matters of college policy
  • consulting with the faculty in order to represent its interests and those of the college as a whole
  • consulting periodically with various members of the administration to gather, assess, and disseminate information on significant college activities, particularly those that touch on the academic mission (e.g., admissions, budget, faculty housing, student life, etc.)
  • preparing the agenda for faculty meetings
  • reviewing and recommending to the faculty any additions, deletions, or changes to faculty committees and their charges, both standing and ad hoc, and reviewing proposals developed by such committees
  • following up on and communicating about policies and committee recommendations approved by the faculty
  • nominating or appointing members of other faculty committees
  • appointing the Faculty Executive Committee’s chair

Normally, the Faculty Executive Committee meets biweekly during each semester of the academic year. 

Election Process  

Members of the Faculty Executive Committee are elected to represent the interests of the entire faculty, not those of special groups. They are elected without restrictions of divisional or departmental affiliation. In the discharge of their duties, the various members participate equally in all parts of the deliberations of the committee and in all votes taken by it.

The election procedure of the Faculty Executive Committee is designed to select members who will exercise their individual judgments as impartially as possible in the general interests of the faculty and of the college. It is important that members of the committee not feel any particular indebtedness to individuals or groups for support in the election process. The faculty has therefore declared that campaigning, caucusing and slating are inappropriate in Faculty Executive Committee elections. Faculty, and in particular new faculty, seeking information about names appearing on the ballot may, however, discuss them informally with other faculty.

At least two of the members of the Faculty Executive Committee are elected in the spring of each year by faculty ballot. Two seats on the Faculty Executive Committee shall be reserved for tenure-track faculty, who will each be elected for a one-year term from a ballot containing the names of all eligible tenure-track faculty. Separately, all tenured members of the committee are elected for two-year terms from a ballot containing the names of all eligible tenured faculty.  All tenure-line faculty vote for candidates on both ballots. Each faculty member must vote for the exact number of vacancies to be filled from each ballot. On the second round of balloting, the number of names presented on the ballots is four times the number of positions remaining to be filled on that ballot. On each succeeding ballot, the number of names presented is twice the number of positions remaining to be filled. To be elected, a faculty member must receive a majority of the votes cast on a particular ballot. Balloting continues until all the positions to be filled have been filled by faculty members who have received a majority of the votes cast. 

During any given election, all professors, associate professors, and assistant professors appointed to full-time tenure-line positions are included on the Faculty Executive Committee, except: 1) the president and the provost and dean of the faculty; 2) other faculty who are serving at least part-time in an administrative role outside their department(s); 3) those who will be in their first year at Amherst in the year following the election; 4) those who will not be at Amherst for one or both semesters of the year following the election; 5) retiring members of the Faculty Executive Committee and the Tenure and Promotion Committee, and those who retired from them (or, formerly, the Committee of Six) in the previous three years (i.e., retiring members cannot be reelected for four years); 6) those who have served three or more terms on the Faculty Executive Committee (or, formerly, the Committee of Six ) and have exercised the option of taking their names off the ballot each year by contacting the Office of the Provost and Dean of the Faculty before the election begins; and 7) tenure-track faculty members who have exercised the option of taking their names off the ballot each year by contacting the Office of the Provost and Dean of the Faculty before the election begins;

Part-time faculty members in tenure-line positions and those on phased retirement have the option not to be included on the ballot.

After the election process is complete, the Faculty Executive Committee will also appoint the following year’s committee chair, for a term of one year.

j. The First-Year Seminar Committee  The First-Year Seminar (FYS) Committee consists of three faculty members, among whom the committee selects its chair, and the director of the Writing Center or the director's representative (ex officio without vote).  The committee is responsible for assisting faculty to develop and teach courses that advance the goals of the FYS Program as voted by the faculty.  To that end, the committee solicits such course proposals and forwards them to the Committee on Educational Policy (CEP) for approval by the faculty, participates in the planning of pedagogical workshops for the FYS Program, and encourages faculty collaboration and curricular innovation in the seminar offerings.  In addition, the committee is responsible for assessing the program and reporting its findings to the faculty (voted by the faculty, May 2009).

k. The Committee on Global Education  The Committee on Global Education is composed of three members of the faculty (each from a different department), one of whom will serve as chair, and the director of the Office of Global Education and the registrar, ex officio, with vote.  The Faculty Executive Committee appoints the faculty members of the committee for three-year terms and appoints the chair.  The Committee on Global Education shapes policies and procedures for evaluating and approving study-away programs and initiatives for Amherst students.  The members maintain and review a list of college-approved study-away programs, review student petitions for study-away programs that are not already on the college-approved list, review student evaluations of all programs, facilitate outreach to departments, and consult with the director to identify new opportunities for experiences off-campus and to facilitate student participation in them.  The faculty members of the committee review applications for the faculty exchange with Doshisha University (the Amherst-Doshisha Professorship) and make recommendations to Amherst’s provost and dean of the faculty.  The committee also reviews other potential partner institutions and makes recommendations to the provost and dean of the faculty (voted by the faculty, April 4, 2017).  (Significant revisions were made to this charge by vote of the faculty on February 6, 2018.)

l. Committee on Health Professions The Committee on Health Professions is composed of four faculty members appointed by the Faculty Executive Committee, including at least one each from the Departments of Biology, Chemistry, and Physics, and the health professions adviser. Faculty members normally serve for three years, and one serves as chair.

The Health Professions Committee recommends policies affecting students planning for careers in medicine and other health professions, provides academic advising and support for those students, and prepares recommendation materials for students and graduates applying to health professions schools.

m. The Faculty Lecture Committee The Faculty Lecture Committee is composed of three members, each serving initially for two years. The chair is typically chosen from among the returning members of the committee and serves for a third year. This committee arranges the program of college lectures, including those provided by specially endowed lecture funds.

n. The Library Committee The Library Committee is composed of three members of the faculty, one chosen annually by the Faculty Executive Committee, serving for three-year terms, two students, and the librarian of the college, ex officio. The committee chooses its chair and secretary each year. Its membership should include one representative each from the humanities, the social sciences and the natural sciences. The purpose of the committee is to discuss and to recommend policies concerning the library's collections and services.

o. The Orientation Committee The Orientation Committee consists of four members of the Office of Student Affairs, including the dean of new students, ex officio, who serves as the committee’s chair; two other members of the faculty, appointed by the Faculty Executive Committee; the chief policy officer/general counsel (or his or her representative), ex officio; and four students (two students selected by the student government and two selected by the Office of Student Affairs).  The faculty and student members of the committee normally serve two-year terms. The Orientation Committee acts in an advisory capacity to the Office of Student Affairs, which is charged with planning and administering orientation for new students and ongoing orientation programs.  The committee approaches its work through broad consultation, drawing on the expertise of members of the Amherst College community.  The role of the committee is to help develop and review the vision, policies, and programming of orientation, giving special attention to academic, social, and regulatory expectations for this experience (amended by vote of the faculty, May 2014). 

p. The Committee on Education and Athletics This committee is composed of the chair of the Department of Physical Education, two representatives selected by the Department of Physical Education, three members of the faculty chosen by the Faculty Executive Committee, two students (one man and one woman) elected by their peers from a slate consisting of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, and a third appointed by the Association of Amherst Students (voted by the faculty, May 2007); and the chief student affairs officer or his or her designee, ex officio. A member of the faculty chairs the committee. The president and the provost and dean of the faculty may meet with the committee. The purpose of this committee is to advise the college on the role and place of athletics in the educational enterprise of the college (voted by the faculty, 2004).

q. Committee on Priorities and Resources  (voted by the faculty, May 2010). The Committee on Priorities and Resources (CPR) is a committee of faculty, students, and staff (with a faculty member as chair), with officers of the administration (the president, the provost and dean of the faculty, the chief financial and administrative officer and the director of budget and analysis, and the chief human resources officer) present ex officio (amended by vote of the faculty, May 2014). The four faculty members, at least one each from the humanities, the social sciences, and the natural sciences, normally serve for a term of three years, and their terms of office are generally staggered so that each year no more than two new members of the committee and the chair are nominated by the Faculty Executive Committee and elected by the faculty. To assure continuity of membership on the CPR, the Faculty Executive Committee will endeavor to nominate members of the faculty whose service on the committee will not be interrupted for two or three years. The minutes of the CPR’s meetings are circulated to the faculty and staff of the college. There is a general expectation of confidentiality in regard to the minutes. The minutes should not be shared with anyone who is not officially entitled to receive them (voted by the faculty May 1, 2018).  

Two of the three student members are elected from the student senate by that body and serve for terms of two years. One of these members is elected in one year, and a second in the other, alternately. A special election conducted from within the senate is used to select replacements for students unable to complete their terms of office. The third student member is selected by the senate from the executive branch of the student government for a one-year term, and serves without vote.

The two staff members of the committee are elected by the staff and normally serve staggered two-year terms.

The voting members of the CPR are its four faculty members, its two staff members, and two of its three student members (as described above).

The purpose of the CPR is to bring a range of faculty, student, and staff opinion to bear upon (1) the process of annually budgeting the resources of the college, and (2) the long-term allocation of resources. To ensure the CPR's involvement in the annual budget process, the administration will bring the budget currently being formulated before the CPR while there is still ample time to affect it. The administration will also present its sense of the priorities among competing claims on the college's resources. The CPR will present to the Amherst College Board of Trustees the committee's views on the annual budget as it is being prepared and on long-term financial concerns. In the spring term, the CPR will also receive and respond to new large capital requests and review the ongoing list of capital priorities and deferred maintenance projects. To discharge its responsibility to assess the continuing ability of the college's financial resources to support its educational mission, the CPR will periodically review the long-term financial impact of such things as the relationship between resources and programs, the level of compensation and benefits, the level and rate of change of the comprehensive fee, and other pertinent matters. To that end, the committee will query other offices and committees about proposals that have financial implications.

Particular responsibilities of the faculty members of the CPR are to represent to the administration the views of the faculty concerning the budget and to report to the faculty each year concerning the status of faculty salaries and compensation.

The committee may request that the Faculty Executive Committee include CPR reports or recommendations on the agenda of meetings of the faculty.

r. The Faculty Committee on Student Fellowships The Faculty Committee on Student Fellowships is composed of seven members: the director of fellowship advising, ex officio, and six members of the faculty, one of whom is chair (amended by vote of the faculty, October 21, 2014).  The faculty members of this committee are recommended to the Amherst College Board of Trustees by the Faculty Executive Committee and serve for two-year terms. The purpose of the committee is to review applications of students and/or recent graduates who wish to receive graduate and undergraduate fellowships and scholarships and to make recommendations on behalf of the college to the groups or foundations that award the fellowships and scholarships. Two categories of fellowships and scholarships are principally involved: a) national or international fellowships and scholarships to which the college can nominate a limited or selected number of applicants (Fulbright, Marshall, Mitchell, Rhodes, Truman, and Watson are examples). For national fellowships and scholarships, the committee reviews applications, interviews applicants, and writes the letters of recommendation for nominated candidates. b) Amherst College Fellowships, for which the committee reviews applications for fellowships for graduate study, which are awarded by the trustees or faculty of Amherst College as described in detail in the Amherst College Catalog.

s. The Tenure and Promotion Committee The Tenure and Promotion Committee considers matters relating to the advancement of faculty through the tenure-line ranks, making recommendations to the president after reviewing cases concerning the reappointment of assistant professors, the promotion of assistant professors to the rank of associate professor with tenure, the promotion of associate professors to the rank of full professor, and named professorships. The committee also makes recommendations to the Faculty Executive Committee concerning proposed changes to tenure and promotion policies and procedures.

The Tenure and Promotion Committee is composed of five tenured faculty members, each serving two-year terms that are staggered to ensure membership continuity. The president and the provost and dean of the faculty serve on the committee ex officio and without vote. The president serves as chair of the committee, and the provost and dean of the faculty serves as secretary.

The Tenure and Promotion Committee meets with a frequency dictated by the number of cases it must consider, normally weekly from October through December and, as needed, every other week during the spring semester.

Election Process
Members of the committee are elected from among the tenured faculty of the college. In the discharge of their duties, the various members participate equally in all parts of the deliberations of the committee and in all votes taken by it, except that, when a candidate for reappointment or tenure is from the same department as a member of the committee. In this circumstance, that member shall not be present during the committee's discussion of the candidate's case, including when straw votes are taken, or vote on the case. The member shall be present during any sessions in which the committee meets with the department about the case and will participate as a department member in that circumstance.  In regard to tenure, the member shall also be present when the committee discusses all cases together, including when final votes are taken, but shall not participate in the discussion of the candidate’s case, or vote on it. Abstentions because of conflict of interest or other conscientious reasons are always acceptable.

The election procedure of the Tenure and Promotion Committee is designed to select members who will exercise their individual judgments as impartially as possible in the general interests of both candidates for tenure and promotion and of the college. It is important that members of the committee not feel any particular indebtedness to individuals or groups for support in the election process. The faculty has therefore declared that campaigning, caucusing and slating are inappropriate in Tenure and Promotion Committee elections. Faculty, and in particular new faculty, seeking information about names appearing on the ballot may, however, discuss them informally with other faculty.

At least two members of the Tenure and Promotion Committee are elected in the spring of each year by faculty ballot. The first ballot circulated to the faculty consists of all those members of the faculty eligible for election to the committee. All tenure-line faculty vote and each faculty member must vote for the exact number of vacancies to be filled. On the second ballot, the number of names presented on the ballot is four times the number of positions remaining to be filled. On each succeeding ballot, the number of names presented on the ballot is twice the number of positions remaining to be filled. To be elected, a faculty member must receive a majority of the votes cast on a particular ballot. Balloting continues until all the positions to be filled have been filled by faculty members who have received a majority of the votes cast.

During any given election, all tenured professors are included on the Tenure and Promotion Committee ballot, except: 1) the president and the provost and dean of the faculty; 2) other faculty who are serving at least part-time in an administrative role outside their department(s); 3) those in their first year at Amherst; 4) those who will not be at Amherst for one or both semesters of the year following the election; 5) retiring members of the Faculty Executive Committee and the Tenure and Promotion Committee, and those who retired from them (or, formerly, the Committee of Six) in the previous three years (i.e., retiring members cannot be reelected for four years); and 6) those who have served three or more terms on the Faculty Executive Committee (or, formerly, the Committee of Six) and have exercised the option of taking their names off the ballot each year by contacting the Office of the Provost and Dean of the Faculty before the election begins.

Part-time faculty members in tenured positions (no tenure-track faculty are eligible to serve on the Tenure and Promotion Committee) and those on phased retirement have the option not to be included on the ballot.

Ad Hoc Committees

Ad hoc committees are generally appointed by the president of the college, with the advice of the Faculty Executive Committee, to study and make reports on special problems or to serve as search committees for certain faculty or administrative appointments. Usually faculty are appointed to such committees by the president after consultation with the Faculty Executive Committee. In unusual circumstances, the faculty members serving on ad hoc committees may be elected by the faculty, following the method of balloting used for elections to the Faculty Executive Committee.

Departmental Committees The faculty voted in May 1969 to establish within each department clearly understood procedures whereby both faculty and student views can be mutually and seriously weighed in determination of departmental policy, including: departmental requirements for majors; the range of course offerings; the growth and development of the department within the college; possibilities for academically valuable cooperation with parallel departments at the neighboring four colleges. Individual departments may deem it appropriate to include also the nature of new teaching appointments within the department and the assessment of the teaching effectiveness of those teachers within the department who are being considered for tenure.

The nature of different subjects, the composition of the faculty and of the majors within different departments, and the conditions necessary to ensure both freedom of teaching and freedom of learning within different departments may call for somewhat diverse procedures to accomplish these goals.

2. Committees of the Amherst College Board of Trustees

There are two committees, advisory to the Amherst College Board of Trustees, on which faculty serve.

a. The Advisory Committee to the Committee on Trusteeship The Amherst College Board of Trustees has declared its intent to elect as term trustees only those who have been considered by an advisory committee consisting of two members of the faculty and two students. At its meeting of October 10, 1972, the faculty established a procedure to elect its representatives to the advisory committee.

Two faculty members are elected for two-year terms. The election procedure follows that of the Faculty Executive Committee, requiring that a person to be elected must receive a majority of the votes cast. All regular tenured and tenure-track members of the faculty except those on leave during the spring semester of the academic year, in which the election takes place and/or those on leave during one or both semesters of the academic year following the election, and those newly appointed during their first year at Amherst, are eligible to serve on the advisory committee. Although part-time faculty may choose not to be included on the ballot, faculty whose terms expire are again eligible in the following year.

b. The Advisory Committee on Honorary Degrees  The two faculty members elected to the Advisory Committee to the Committee on Trusteeship serve also as the faculty members on the Advisory Committee on Honorary Degrees. This committee, which also includes three students elected by the senior class, meets with the Honorary Degrees Committee of the Amherst College Board of Trustees to discuss candidates for honorary degrees and to make recommendations to the board. The board has indicated that no candidate will be voted an honorary degree whose candidacy has not been discussed with the Advisory Committee on Honorary Degrees.

3. Committees of the College

Advisory committees composed of members of the faculty, administration, staff, and student body are appointed by the president or other members of the administration to communicate with different constituencies of the college and to formulate recommendations about policies and procedures to the president and other members of the administration.

Diversity and Inclusion  The Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Committee performs advisory functions for the college administration. Its purpose is to bring to the attention of the college a range of opinions and suggestions regarding the provisions of the college's Diversity and Inclusion Program, which provisions reflect the laws and guidelines published by the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, and subsequent federal and state regulations. In carrying out its purpose it has authority to issue reports to the college community.

The committee is composed of five faculty members, seven trustee appointees, seven staff appointees, six students, and such other persons as the president chooses to include in order to provide diversity of perspective and to meet the needs of those groups covered by Affirmative Action legislation. The chief human resources officer or his or her representative and the special assistant to the president for diversity shall serve ex officio. All members are regular employees of the college. The president, to whom the committee reports at least once a year, appoints all members to the committee. Appointments are for two years. The committee elects its chair and secretary.

4. Five-College Committees

From time to time Amherst faculty members may be appointed by the president or the provost and dean of the faculty, with the advice of the Faculty Executive Committee, to serve as representatives on Five College faculty committees to consider questions of academic policy of joint interest to two or more of the colleges.