Faculty Senate Records

Agency History

The University of Hawaiʻi Faculty Senate as such was created by the Board of Regents’ amending their bylaws on 17 May 1962. Prior to this date, faculty had participated in the governance of the University of Hawaiʻi but had done so in bodies which were not exclusively faculty in makeup and in which the faculty did not have the power to institute sessions. Early faculty participation in governance began in September of the first year of college-level instruction, 1908, and has continued with minor interruptions since that beginning. For a more detailed history of the faculty involvement in governance at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, see Cartwright, “History of the Evolution of Faculty Participation in the Governance of the University of Hawaiʻi, 1908-1962.”

The revision to the bylaws by the Board of Regents [BOR] mentioned above transformed the previous University Senate into a Faculty Senate. The University Senate as it had existed before this revision included several administrators either appointed by the University President or specified in the bylaws of the BOR, as well as all faculty at ranks of IV or V (associate and full professors). The new Faculty Senate was made up of seventy-five elected faculty members—with specified numbers coming from ranks II through V—and additional faculty members representing each of the colleges, including Hilo Branch. None of the senators could simultaneously serve on the Administrative Council. In addition, the President of the University ceased being the presiding officer of the senate and became an ex officio member without a vote. ¹

Prior to 1978, Article VII of the Board of Regents’ Bylaws concerned the faculty; Section B specified that the faculty senate should function according to its charter approved by the Board. (The BOR adoption of the new Faculty Senate in May 1962 in essence formulated the initial charter for UH-Mānoa’s faculty senate.) The section authorized any college or other unit in the University system to organize its own senate or council.²

Starting with the 1978 printing, the Bylaws became much more complex in organization with four major parts: A, pertaining to the Hawaiʻi State Constitution; B, pertaining to the Hawaiʻi State Code; C, pertaining to the functions of the Board of Regents; and D, containing the Board of Regents Policies. In D, Section I, general aspects of the University, part 10, entitled “Faculty Involvement in Academic Decision Making and Academic Policy Development” the Board of Regents delegated to faculty on the various campuses the authority to create organizations through which the faculty exercise their role in the decision making. Each campus was to determine its own organization and adopt its own bylaws and rules of procedure.³ The section authorized the various senates to speak for faculty in such matters as policy planning; budget planning and implementation policies; student-faculty relations policies; evaluation of faculty and campus academic administrators; plus other areas.⁴

Notes:

¹Charter of the Faculty Senate of the University of Hawaiʻi, reprinted, Sept. 1962, 7 pp. (call number in the Hawaiian Collection, LG961 .H375 H37) and Minutes of the Board of Regents, 17 May 1962, p. 14, University Archives, Manuscript A2008:014.

² Board of Regents By-laws, 1970, section VII.B. Copy in Hamilton Library, Hawaiian Collection, call #: LG961 .H38 A3 1970.

³Board of Regents Bylaws, 1978, Part D Policies, section 1.10, Hawaiian Collection, call # LG961 .H38 A3 1978.

⁴Ibid.

Scope & Content Note

The records of Faculty Senate in Accession A1992:001 generally cover the years 1967-1999. Records from Faculty Senate before 1967 are in earlier accessions to the University Archives. Records of other bodies of faculty involved in the governance of the University of Hawaiʻi are available in the Early Faculty Governance collection.

This collection of faculty governance records includes eleven series, one of which is divided into six subseries. The first two series contain the minutes and agendas of Faculty Senate meetings and the minutes and agendas of Faculty Congress meetings from 1967 to 1999. The holdings of the Senate Executive Committee range from 1967 to 1998, with the exception of the records for one academic year, 1983/1984; these are missing from the records. While the Senate Executive Committee series primarily contains minutes and agenda, the series includes memoranda and other supplementary materials. The fourth series contains contains records of the Senate’s various standing committees; this series has been divided into a subseries for each standing committee.

The scope of the records in each standing committee subseries varies:

• The Committee on Administration and Budget (CAB) records run from 1981-1998.
• The records of the Committee on Academic Policy and Planning (CAPP) cover 1978-1998.
• The Committee on Faculty Service (CFS) subseries includes records of earlier standing committees of the Faculty Senate which conducted the same function under different names: notably the Committee on Committees, Elections Committee, and Committee on Selections; the records of this subseries run from 1979 to 1999.
• The records of the Committee on Professional Matters (CPM) has the most gaps in its record; the extant materials cover the years 1978-1980, 1986/1987 academic year, and 1989-1998.
• The records of the Committee on Athletics (COA) run from 1994 (the year it was established) to 1998; prior to 1994, no Faculty Senate committee on athletics at UH existed, only an administrative committee appointed by the president, consisting of members nominated by the athletic department and a faculty member nominated by Faculty Senate.
• Finally, the Committee on Student Affairs (CSA) records run from 1990-1999.

The seven remaining series consist of records of ad hoc committees; reports; memoranda; proposals of academic programs made to the Faculty Senate; subject files; Faculty Senate resolutions; and materials pertaining to the All Campus Council of Faculty Senate Chairs (ACCFSC).

The records of the ad hoc committees span 1978 to 1990. Generally ad hoc committees have short runs of one or two years. The reports in the next series come from various sources, dating from 1972-1996. This series includes files on program reviews, miscellaneous news items, and tuition schedules. More formal reports include effects of tuition increases; alcohol and drug policy; and the WASC Accreditation reports from 1991. This series is arranged alphabetically. The memoranda series focuses almost exclusively on memoranda to or from University President Kenneth Mortimer, Vice President for Academic Affairs Carol Eastman, and Alison Kay and Kiyoshi Ikeda, co-chairs of the Faculty Senate. A few folders contain miscellaneous memoranda.

The series of proposals for academic programs would normally be in the records of the Committee on Academic Policy and Planning. However, they were instead filed by themselves in a separate system, probably to enhance ease of access, and archival staff retained this arrangement when processing the collection. Nevertheless researchers should check in the files of CAPP in addition to this series in order to ensure all information available on a proposal has been located. The proposals records run approximately from 1984 to 1998 and are organized alphabetically by the title of the proposed program. As CAPP usually voted on more than one proposal at a meeting and created only one cover memo to accompany the proposal recommendations sent back to Senate Executive Committee, researchers should also look at the other proposals by title voted on by CAPP on the same date to verify all available information has been seen.

The subject files series is arranged alphabetically, and covers from 1979 to 1999. The small series of Faculty Senate resolutions spans 1992-1995. Other resolutions may be interfiled in the Senate Executive Committee series and in the Senate meeting minutes and agenda series. The series of materials on ACCFSC covers the years 1987 to 1993.

This collection periodically receives new additions; the Archives may have more material than what is described here.

Series List

• Faculty Senate Minutes and Agenda
• Senate Executive Committee
• Faculty Congress
• Standing Committees
• Ad Hoc Committees, Task Forces, etc.
• Reports
• Memoranda
• Proposals
• Subject Files
• Resolutions of Faculty Senate
• All Campus Council of Faculty Senate Chairs (ACCFSC)

Inventory of Records (pdf)

Separate list of proposals (Series H) (pdf)