Guiding Principles for Undergraduate Council & Subcommittee Membership

1)      Membership on the Undergraduate Council and Subcommittees is important; this is an opportunity to make an impact and be heard and/or have some control over academic issues that affect undergraduate students.

• Members' attendance at and participation in Council and subcommittee meetings is crucial for completing business, especially for voting members as a quorum (>50% of the membership) must be present for voting. Please notify the UGC Chair or Patti King (pattik@u.arizona.edu or 621-4107) well in advance if you will be on sabbatical during your term on UGC or if you have a teaching conflict that interferes with your ability to regularly attend meetings. Every effort will be made to work with your college dean's office to appoint an alternate representative to serve during your absence.
• ASUA student representation is important and student representatives are asked to be present at all Council and subcommittee meetings and to stay for the entire meeting. If you have a class conflict that interferes with your ability to regularly attend meetings please work with ASUA to ensure an alternative representative is available to serve during your absence.

2)      College representatives are responsible for communicating with their respective college to bring issues forward for review/approval and to notify colleges of agenda items and discussions/decisions relevant to their college, etc. It is especially important to keep your associate/assistant deans informed as issues that are approved by UGC will also be forwarded to CAAC for review and vote.

3)      Student representatives are responsible for communicating with ASUA and the undergraduate student body to bring issues forward for review/approval and to notify students of agenda items and discussions/decisions, etc. 

4)      In order to support timely distribution of agendas, deadlines will be established for receipt of agenda items.

5)      Every effort will be made to send agendas to committee members at least 48 business hours prior to a scheduled meeting.

6)      Agendas, minutes, and all related documents will be sent electronically. Please print documents if you would like them for reference at the meeting.

7)      Appropriate approval routes for programs and policies are well established and will be followed.

8)      Council chair/co-chairs and subcommittee chair/co-chairs will act as facilitators at their respective meetings. Discussions should be kept on topic to maximize meeting time and accomplish business. New issues identified as the result of discussions at meetings should be officially submitted for consideration at a later date. Occasionally, it is necessary to discuss and resolve issues concurrently. 

9)      In an effort to reduce the "volleyball" effect, some issues that are identified as complex or highly charged will first be brought to full Council to generate questions and ideas, raise issues, and allow subcommittee members to gain greater understanding of the issue before the issue is sent to subcommittee for recommendation. 

10)  Please remember that:

• it's sometimes necessary to make a decision in the face of controversy;
• it's appropriate to deny a request when there are sound reasons for the denial;
• it's appropriate to support and approve a request even in the face of controversy;
• it's appropriate for a subcommittee not to make a decision about an issue if members feel they cannot reasonably resolve the issue at the current time or without additional information;
• it's appropriate for a subcommittee to take the time required to make an informed decision despite external pressures.