Appendix XVII

Policy for Participation of Senate Members on Secondary Committees
[En 12 Nov 96]

It is common practice for Academic Senate officers, committee chairs and committee members to serve on committees other than their own, both within the Senate and within the Administration. The following principles are intended to set forth Academic Senate policy with respect to the participation of such persons on these secondary committees. (For the purposes of this appendix, the term "primary committee" refers to the Academic Senate committee in which the member holds his/her primary appointment; the term "secondary committee" refers to any other committee, Senate or Administration, to which the member is appointed by virtue of her/his membership on the primary committee. The term "member" includes any elected or appointed officer, committee chair or committee member of the Academic Senate.)

1. The authority of the Academic Senate is chiefly reposed in and exercised by its committees. Subject to specifically legislated exceptions, no officer or other member may represent as the policy or position of the Academic Senate, or any committee thereof, a view which has not been adopted or endorsed by the appropriate agency of the Academic Senate.
   
2. Academic Senate members serving on secondary committees are empowered to represent and/or act for the primary committee only within the limits expressly authorized by the primary committee. Members have the right to express their individual opinions in secondary committee meetings as long as they acknowledge the opinion to be their own.
   
3. Academic Senate members serving on secondary committees shall provide timely and full notification and reports to the primary committee of the business of the secondary committee. If that business includes confidential matters, then the faculty member works with the chair of the liaison committee to identify how best to keep the home committee informed and to establish the least restrictive confidentiality possible. In confidential matters, all University rules and policies shall be observed by all committees and members involved.