A Resolution on Faculty in the Governance of the University

WHEREAS Cornell's administration this summer proceeded to destroy Redbud Woods and build a parking lot on the site against opposition from the Student Assembly, hundreds of faculty members, the City of Ithaca government, the Ithaca community, members of the Treman family, and environmental scientists; and

WHEREAS many faculty believe that the administration dealt poorly with faculty opposition to the project from 2003 to July of 2005, while substantial contingents of opposed faculty sought to make their views known and present alternatives through petitions, meetings, and letters; and

WHEREAS many faculty believe that issues of environmental sustainability and good community relations raised by the parking lot project were inadequately addressed by planners and decision-makers; and

WHEREAS many faculty believe that the decision to pave Redbud Woods is symptomatic of deep flaws in the planning and decision-making process at Cornell and of a failure to maintain a proper balance among administration, faculty, student, and community roles in the process;

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT the Faculty Senate instruct its Nominations and Elections Committee to organize the election by the faculty at large of a Commission on Faculty in University Governance of seven members, whose charge for the 2005-06 academic year would be:

(1) to study the governance structures of U.S. colleges and universities to identify the major alternative models of faculty involvement in university decision making that might inform changes in governance at Cornell;

(2) to ensure that proposed changes in governance will call for a faculty role in monitoring large-scale plans regarding physical development of the campus environment;

(3) to present to the Faculty Senate by May 2006, for revision and subsequent submission to the Board of Trustees, a general proposal for the revision of governance structures at Cornell, including presidential searches, which delineates the powers and responsibilities of the Faculty and the Faculty Senate in decision making.

Motion Presented by Senators Martin Hatch, Jane-Marie Law, Carol Rosen and William Trochim 12 September 2005