Based on the Bylaws of other higher education institutions, academic senates are typically constituted by faculty and staff. Their primary obligations range from representing the voices and needs of faculty to overseeing all things academic, which include authorizing, approving, and supervising all courses, recommending the hiring and promotion of faculty members, addressing topics related to admissions and affirmative action, and more (UCR). One of the fundamental principles and purposes of academic senates is achieving shared governance, or establishing a direct communication channel and relationship with faculty and administrators (UCR). At Yale University, the academic senate is composed of three committees: Course of Study Committee, Committee on Teaching, Learning, and Advising, and the Calendar Committee (Yale). While a substantial portion of this information is irrelevant to Johns Hopkins University’s undergraduate Student Government Association, certain parts of academic senate missions can be applicable and tailored to our organization. For instance, our academic senate could also be viewed as a liaison between student and faculty. Furthermore, Duke University’s undergraduate student government does have an Academic Affairs Committee, which could be viewed as having similar responsibilities to JHU’s academic senators. More specifically, this committee has “purview over Duke curriculum, faculty programs and pedagogy, course evaluations, academic advising, course registration, tuition, financial aid, the university academic calendar, admissions, student-faculty interaction, the Undergraduate Honor Code, academic services, study abroad programs, international civic engagement programs, and special academic programs. The Academic Affairs Committee shall also work closely with the Office of the Provost, the office of the Dean of Trinity College, the Office of Undergraduate Education, and the office of the Dean of the Pratt School for Engineering.” (Duke) All student government senators share the same underlying responsibility: representing the student body. Overall, academic senates are not extremely common across undergraduate student governments in higher education institutions. That leaves JHU’s SGA largely flexible to establish and determine the specific role that an academic senate would occupy, what the structure and obligations would look like, and what their primary operating sphere and mission will be. Sources:
“Duke Student Government: Durham, NC: Dukestudentgovernment.Com.” Duke Student Govt, www.dukestudentgovernment.org/. Accessed 8 Aug. 2023.
https://senate.ucr.edu/about/duties_structure - University of California, Riverside, Duties and Structure of Academic Senate
https://docs.google.com/document/d/14E_N8Vk17wsiZeyU1fRVoggpEj3fDQ-mLoQzWGEriNU/edit - Yale University, College Council Constitution