The ASC (American Shakespeare Center) Consortium Task Force will organize, plan, and execute the annual events and programming that W&L's consortium alliance with the ASC makes possible. The task force will work in conjunction with existing W&L offices such as communications, Lenfest Center, and the Provost's office to make the consortium benefits and opportunities available to the full W&L community.
The COACHE (Collaborative On Academic Careers in Higher Education) Faculty Job Satisfaction Survey Task Force was formed in the fall of 2019. The task force will lead the design and dissemination of the survey during the 2019-20 academic year. In the 2020-21 academic year, the task force will: share the results with the faculty, administration, and appropriate committees; facilitate discussions and the identification of areas of specific concern based on the survey; and present recommendations to the faculty.
As stipulated by the ‘W&L Faculty Antiracist Plan of Action for Systemic Change,' "The ad-hoc committee will prioritize the goals set forth by the faculty and propose ways of accomplishing them, including but not limited to identifying partners for the faculty to achieve the goals.
GEIC will implement changes to the Foundation and Distribution Requirements (FDR) according to the general education program approved by the undergraduate faculty. GEIC's membership will be established following a similar process to that by which GEDC was formed. GEIC will be made up of three faculty members elected by the faculty in an at-large election, with no categories or divisions, though no more than one member per department can be elected.
Non-Tenure-Track Faculty Task Force (ad hoc, 2019-2021) will issue a report to the Provost that summarizes findings and makes recommendations about means of addressing concerns or improving policies and practices about non-tenure-track faculty (NTT). This report will be shared in its entirety with the full faculty.
The SACSCOC Interim Report Committee will collaborate to assemble, prepare, and review the evidence necessary to demonstrate the University’s compliance with an abbreviated list (22 standards) of the Principles of Accreditation.
Science, Society, and the Arts Planning Committee (SSA) plans the March 2023 SSA multi-disciplinary conference involving Washington and Lee students in the presentation of their academic achievements before an audience of their peers and the faculty. Conference participants may make oral presentations of research papers on traditional academic-conference-style panels, deliver research results in poster sessions, or present creative work. Students may also choose to participate in colloquia organized around common readings proposed by interested students and faculty.
The SPoT (Student Perceptions of Teaching) Development Committee was created in March 2023. The committee membership will consist of six undergraduate faculty members. The SPoT Development Committee is charged with: Developing a standardized method that will be used by faculty members and department heads to systematically summarize and interpret SPoT results.
It is critically important that our tenure and promotion process be as fair as possible, and therefore, our evaluation of teaching must be as well. Research has demonstrated bias based on gender and race in student evaluations. Variation across departmental instruments can also cause inequities. The Advisory Committee, which makes recommendations to the President concerning cases of undergraduate tenure and promotion, has encouraged us to consider whether we should standardize teaching evaluation and how best to mitigate bias.