Guidelines for Committees, Panels, and Commissions - Letter from the President


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STANFORD UNIVERSITY

STANFORD, CALIFORNIA 94305-2060






OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT
[date]













To:
Chairs and Members of University Committees, Presidential Commissions, and Administrative Panels




From:
Gerhard Casper
President		




Subject:
Procedures for University Committees, Presidential Commissions, and Administrative Panels






	



Ladies and Gentlemen:


In 1972, the Senate of the Academic Council set out rules concerning records and confidentiality of Committees. Since that time, this office has sent to members of University Committees, Presidential Commissions, and Administrative Panels a parallel memorandum about procedures. I hope you will find the guidelines useful; please let me know if they raise any difficulty.



I.	University Committees



University committees are appointed by the President to make recommendations to the President and other administrative officers about policies and programs within their jurisdictions. They also serve as review bodies for the relevant administrative units and to provide information and communication to the community.



It is the responsibility of Committee Chairs to advise the President through copies of committee minutes, recommendations, special reviews, and an annual report.



Minutes and records are to be made available to members of the Stanford community except when the committee determines them to be confidential. Members and guests of committees are expected to observe the Committee's confidentiality. Copies of minutes not considered confidential should be distributed to the President's office, appropriate administrative offices, the Academic Secretary and the Associated Students.



The committee charge defines voting and ex officio membership. Faculty and student nominees will be sought through the Faculty Senate Committee on Committees and the ASSU Nominations Committee. The final appointment of nominees and co-opted members rests with the President.



Members of University committees shall function as uninstructed representatives, not as constituency delegates, and shall generally be limited to three years of consecutive membership. I will appoint a chair for each committee annually; he or she will be selected from among the voting members of the committee. This means that there will also be a limit of three consecutive years on the chairship.


The expectation of attendance at meetings is that committee members may be asked to resign if they are unable to participate reasonably in proceedings. Following the advice of the Committee on Committees, proxy voting is not allowed.



Administrative officers whose responsibilities are affected by the work of the University committees shall normally have ex officio non-voting membership on relevant committees, or shall be regular recipients of agenda and minutes. These officers will also have guest privileges for appropriate discussion items.



Subcommittees may be established by the charge to University committees or to address specific problems. The purpose of a subcommittee is to assist the parent committee in its functions; subcommittees report to and advise the parent committee.


II.	Administrative Panels


Panels are also appointed by the President to convene administrative staff members with related responsibilities or common problems. Faculty, students and others may be invited to serve on administrative panels when required. Panels are primarily concerned with practical problems related to policy implementation, although policy and program recommendations are not excluded from their purview.


Administrative panels report to the President or to a designated University officer. The chair and members are appointed by the President. It is the responsibility of panel chairs to distribute copies of minutes and reports to the President and affected University officers.


Panels may establish task groups to address specific issues with the understanding that such groups are for the advice to the panel.


III.	Presidential Commissions


The President may appoint special commissions to provide advice or recommendations. Such commissions are normally temporary since their purpose is to help resolve a specific problem.


It is the responsibility of Commission chairs to provide copies of minutes and recommendations to the president or a designee. The proceedings of commissions may be designated by the President as confidential (as in the case of search committees, for example). Membership of commissions shall be stipulated in the instructions of appointment. As with University committees, members shall function as uninstructed representatives.


In all Committees, Panels, and Commissions, I would like to recommend that Chairs recognize their prerogatives in running meetings. These include controlling the number of invitees, as well as the length of time they stay in a meeting.


Guests should be invited to a meeting only with the permission of the Chair.


Committee membership is an important form of service to the University, and I value your contribution. Thank you very much for your willingness to serve Stanford in this way.












Sincerely,



                

                











 








Guidelines On Confidentiality of Administrative Panel Proceedings

(September 19, 1986)










Preamble



The purpose of these Guidelines is to maintain the fundamental principle of openness in research, as set forth in Stanford's policy on Secrecy in Research, in ways that appropriately protect personal privacy and proprietary information. The desirability of openness with respect to the business of Administrative Panels must be limited by considerations of privacy of human subjects, the confidentiality of proprietary data, the need to encourage free discussion at Panel meetings, and the desire to promote cooperation in carrying out the purposes of the Panels.


It would be inappropriate to make any information available that would jeopardize the privacy of human subjects. Moreover, like a research proposal before it is funded, a protocol is normally considered proprietary to the principal investigator until the project is funded. Further, a protocol may contain data that is proprietary to the sponsor, which the University is contractually obligated to keep confidential. And, last, open and frank discussions of protocols should be encouraged. The incentives to do so can best be preserved by protecting the anonymity of the members of the Panels who raise questions of concerns about the risks or benefits involved in any particular protocol.


Therefore, the following policy Guidelines have been established to aid Administrative Panels in carrying out their institutional obligations.


Attendance at regular panel meetings:


Normally regular Panel meetings are closed to the public, although exceptions may be made by each Panel. Panels are encouraged to hold special public sessions on issues of unusual interest to the broader University community in those cases where a significant number of individuals have asked to meet with Panel member or where concerns have been raised about matters related to Panel business.


Minutes of panel meetings:


In order to encourage open and frank discussion at panel meetings, and to have detailed records of Panel business (including confidential issues and matters under investigation), minutes of Administrative Panels normally are not made available to others outside the University administration unless otherwise required by law or external regulations.




Annual reports of panel activities:



Chairs of Administrative Panels shall prepare annual reports to the President summarizing the nature and volume of the Panel's activities. These reports will be published in the Stanford Report and will be made otherwise publicly available. Confidential matters should not be included in such reports, but should be conveyed separately to the Vice Provost and Dean of Research and/or the President.



Protocols and human consent forms:



After a research project has been funded (or, in the case of unsponsored research activities, after the research has begun), copies of the approved protocol for that project, and/or the form used by the investigator to obtain the consent of human subjects in the research, shall be made available to members of the University community upon request.


Such requests normally should be directed to the cognizant principal investigator, who is responsible for ensuring that any sponsor-supplied proprietary data or data potentially divulging the identity of human subjects are deleted from the forms prior to making them available to others.


Investigators who believe that their research would be jeopardized by the release of protocols or consent forms during the source of their research, may deny requests for such information, by stating their reasons in writing the individuals making the request, with a copy to the Vice Provost and Dean of Research and the Chair of the relevant Panel. Appeals regarding such decisions should be made the to the Vice Provost and Dean of Research, who is responsible for adjudicating disputes.


A request from an individual with a current Stanford I.D. card for a protocol/consent form associated with a specifically-identified project normally will be granted; however, the University will not make available protocols/consent forms associated with groups of unspecified research projects, such as all those associated with particular investigators or with particular funding agencies.


Implementation:


Questions about interpretation or implementation of these Guidelines should be referred to the Vice Provost and Dean of Research, who is also responsible for adjudicating disputes related to any of the provisions of the Guidelines.






Rules Regarding University Committees




(CoCD#1042, adopted July 23, 1971 and 

revised February 27, 1989, SenD#3464)



    


  1. University Committees, which are appointed under the authority of the President, shall operate as bodies formulating policy and reviewing operations. No policy formulated by a Committee shall be binding until reported to and accepted by the President. Implementation of policies shall be left to the appropriate administrative officers.
    2. 


  2. All Committees shall promptly report all policy formulations to the President, and shall send copies of these reports to the faculty Senate and the student Senate. Ordinarily, no matter within the concern of a Committee will be the subject of action by the President without having been first considered by the Committee. The President, however, may place questions on the agenda of any Committee, and may specify reasonable deadlines for action or report on these questions. Committees shall report their activities to the President from time to time as requested by him.
    3. 


  3. Records of Committees' actions and deliberations shall be open to inspection by properly identified members of the University, within appropriate standards of confidentiality.
    4. 


      


    1. Each Committee shall file minutes regularly with the President, with a copy to the Academic Secretary, noting any portion of such minutes that, in the judgment of the Committee, are confidential, and to what degree. Where further judgment as to identification and confidentiality must be exercised, the decision shall be that of the President, or a designated representative, after consulting with the appropriate Committee chair.
      2. 


    2. The Chair of each committee shall file with the President, with a copy to the Academic Secretary, no later than October 1, a report for the preceding year. The copy of the report in the Academic Secretary's Office shall be made available for inspection and copying by
      
members of the Academic Council and the Student Senate.
    


  4. Members shall be appointed to University Committees by the President in accordance with the terms of the charges to the several committees. All appointed members provided for in individual charges to Committees shall be voting members. Faculty members shall be appointed on nomination of the faculty Senate Committee on Committees. Wherever possible, the appointment of student members shall be made in accordance with the nominating procedures prevailing in the constitutional organization of the student government, provided such nominations are forthcoming, are promptly made, and the nominees are eligible. No such nominations shall be rejected unless the President sees an overriding reason for doing so and reports the declination to the faculty Senate and student Senate. Any Committee may add, as non-voting co-opted members, additional persons from the faculty, the University staff, and the student body as appropriate to the Committee's charge, not to exceed in number one-third of the authorized membership.
    


  5. All members of Committees shall function as uninstructed members, free to use their judgment on issues, and not as instructed delegates or representatives of constituents.
    6. 


  6. Consecutive membership on a Committee shall usually be limited to three years, with eligibility for reappointment coming after an absence from the Committee of one full year.
    7. 


  7. The Chair of each Committee shall be appointed annually by the President from among the voting members of the Committee. normally no person shall serve as Chair of a Committee for more than three consecutive years.
    8. 


  8. An administrative officer whose operations are importantly affected by the policies of, and whose operations are reviewed by, a given Committee shall not be the Chair of the Committee, but shall normally be an ex officio member of the Committee without vote.
    9. 

  9. Agenda and minutes of Committees shall be circulated to appropriate administrative officers, who shall be invited to attend discussions of matters substantially touching their operations, whether they are members or not.
    10. 


  10. Each Committee shall appoint any subcommittee(s) specified in its charge. In addition to such standing subcommittee(s), each Committee may appoint temporary subgroups for matters of specific reference and for specified duration. Matters of reference shall be received by subcommittees only from the parent Committee or its Chair. Subcommittees shall formulate policy only in areas assigned to them by the President in the charge to the parent Committee. Such policy formulation shall not be effective until formulation has been reported to the President by the parent Committee and accepted by the President. A subcommittee may be charged by its parent Committee to review the work of a particular administrative officer, with reference to policies formulated by the parent Committee and approved by the President.
    11. 


  11. Minutes of each standing subcommittee's meetings shall be kept according to standards set by the Academic Secretary, and filed promptly with the Chair of the parent Committee, with the President and with the Academic Secretary. The Chair of each subcommittee shall file with the Chair of the parent Committee, with the President, and with the Academic Secretary, no later than October 1, a report of the subcommittee's work for the preceding academic year.
    12. 


  12. In distributing membership on subcommittees among the faculty, the student body and the University staff, the Committee shall take into account both the relative interests of the three basic constituencies in the area of the subcommittee's charge, and the need for members whose expertise bears on the area of concern. Membership of a subcommittee normally shall not exceed the size of the parent Committee. The membership of each subcommittee shall include at least one member of the parent Committee. Appointment to a standing subcommittee shall not be effective until reported to the Academic Secretary. Terms of appointment to subcommittees shall not exceed one year; and members shall be eligible for no more than two consecutive reappointments. A subcommittee may add, as non-voting co-opted members, additional persons from the faculty, the University staff, and the student body, as appropriate to the subcommittee's charge, not to exceed in number one-half the authorized membership. Terms of appointment of such non-voting, co-opted members shall not exceed one year but shall be without limit as to reappointment.








 


Policy Regarding President's Commissions


(CoCD#1043, July 23, 1971)


    


  1. President's Commissions receive from the President specific instructions for action or advice and are usually presumed to be temporary. They are responsive to the President as to duration and membership, and they report to him and only through him to other groups.
    2. 

  2. Each Commission should promptly report all advice and/or policy formulations to the President. Ordinarily, no matter within the concern of a Commission will be the subject of action by the President without the advice of the Commission.
    3. 

  3. Each Commission should keep records of all deliberations and actions. Only at the discretion of the President may such records, or parts of records, be open to inspection to properly identified members of the University.
    4. 

  4. All members of President’s Commission shall be appointed by the President.
    5. 

  5. The Chair of each Commission shall be appointed by the President.




 





Policy Regarding Administrative Panels


(CoCD#1044, July 23, 1971)


    


  1. Administrative Panels are responsible to the President as the Chief administrative officer of the University. They bring together mostly administrators from several branches of administration sharing a common problem or interest or responsibility, and, as needed, faculty and other members of the University whose expertise bears on the area of concern.
    2. 

  2. Administrative Panels do not formulate policy. It is the responsibility of Administrative Panels to find ways in which to implement policies that have been formulated by Committees of the Academic Council or University Standing Committees, or, in some cases, President's Commissions, and accepted by the Senate of the Academic Council (for Committees of the Academic Council) or by the President (for University Committees or President's Commissions).
    3. 

  3. All Panels shall promptly report all procedural and organizational regulations that are formulated by them to the President, either directly or via a University officer designated by the President. No such regulation shall become operative until accepted by the President.
    4. 

  4. All members of Administrative Panels shall be appointed by the President.
    5. 

  5. The Chair of each Panel shall be appointed by the President.