88 Strategic Leadership
to serve renewable rotating three-year terms. Five faculty members—no more
than two from the same unit—will be nominated by the faculty membership
committee after consultation with the chief academic officer, and elected by the
senate. Three deans will be rotating members: one will be from one of the two
largest schools, and the two others will be chosen by the president in consultation
with the dean’s council. The SPC will require staff support from the director and
another member of the planning and research staff. Total membership, excluding
staff support, should not exceed sixteen members, including one undergraduate
and one graduate student serving two-year terms.
Since the SPC is a continuing body, the issue of its leadership is of critical
significance. Persons who assume the position of chairperson should have both
substantial academic or administrative authority, as well as considerable talents
in integrative thinking and in communication. Since the SPC is to work at the
nexus of governance, strategy, leadership, and management, the chairperson
should be ableto conceptualize skillfully the institution’s identity and vision, as
well as possess the authority to help ensure that goals and priorities are imple-
mented. Most members of the commission believe that the SPC would best be
chaired by the provost, or by the vice president for planning and administration.
Some members have argued that the SPC should be under the leadership of the
president as chair or as co-chair, since that office has the most influential role in
forging links between the different levels of decision making.
President’s Role
The commission unanimously believes that whether as chairperson, co-chair,
or an ex-officio member, the president must make the work of the SPC a defining
responsibility of presidential duties. This means attending meetings, working inti-
mately with the chairperson, shepherding reports and recommendations through
the institution and on to the board, and ensuring the implementation of approved
projects. Many times the president will contribute decisively to the SPC’s delib-
erations, especially on issues of mission and vision and the most pressing strategic
challenges and opportunities. The task of collective university leadership will find
one of its core mechanisms in the work of an effective SPC.
Questions about Strategic Governance
Any recommendations with the scope of the Flagship commission’s report may
stir some measure of controversy on many campuses, less on others. They will have to
be discussed, debated, and negotiated in various campus forums, venues, and decision-
making bodies. The issues to be debated can be clarified by series of questions that
can be used to test the Flagship report as well as the designs that other campuses
may develop to address the issues of effective strategic governance.
- How does the SPC relate to the work of existing faculty bodies and administra-
tive committees and officers?