Overall Rating Gold
Overall Score 72.78
Liaison Kathleen Crawford
Submission Date May 31, 2024

STARS v2.2

Florida Gulf Coast University
PA-3: Inclusive and Participatory Governance

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 2.38 / 3.00 Kathleen Crawford
Sustainability Coordinator
Environmental Health & Safety
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Part 1. Shared governance bodies

Does the institution have formal participatory or shared governance bodies through which the following stakeholders can regularly participate in the governance of the institution?:
Yes or No
Students Yes
Academic staff Yes
Non-academic staff Yes

A brief description of the institution’s formal participatory or shared governance bodies:
The FGCU Board of Trustees (BOT) serves as the governing body of Florida Gulf Coast University. It selects the FGCU president and holds the president responsible for the university’s operation and management, performance, fiscal accountability, and compliance with federal and state laws and regulations, including those of the Board of Governors. The FGCU BOT is comprised of 13 trustees — six appointed by Florida's Governor and five appointed by the State University System Board of Governors, along with the current presidents of the university's Faculty Senate and Student Government.

FGCU's Staff Advisory Council (SAC) engages in collegial dialog with the President of the University, Vice Presidents and others in positions of administrative leadership in order to pursue and refine the mission of the University. Collaborative and shared leadership among all University constituents is critical to creating a campus environment conducive to advancing student, faculty, and staff achievement. Fairness, mutual respect, continuous improvement, an informed staff, and collegial decision-making are the hallmarks of the governance structure.

FGCU’s Student Government provides equal representation for all students at Florida Gulf Coast University. Student Government works in the best interest of the student body when determining priorities for academic planning, policies, and programs. FGCU’s Student Government officials are committed to maintaining high levels of communication between the student body, faculty, staff, and the community.

The purpose of FGCU's Faculty Senate is to safeguard academic quality, promote effective and open communication, insist upon academic integrity, emphasize rights and shared responsibilities of students, staff, community, faculty, and administration, and sustain a dynamic learning environment. This mission is accomplished through a system of collegial faculty self-governance ensuring that the rights of faculty are supported and faculty responsibilities in fulfilling the mission of the university are properly executed.

Part 2. Campus stakeholder representation in governance

Total number of individuals on the institution’s highest governing body:
12

Number of students representing their peers as official members of the institution’s highest governing body:
1

Number of academic staff representing their peers as official members of the institution’s highest governing body:
1

Number of non-academic staff representing their peers as official members of the institution’s highest governing body:
0

Part 3. Gender equity in governance

Number of women serving as official members of the institution’s highest governing body:
3

Percentage of official members of the highest governing body that are women:
25

Website URL where information about the institution’s highest governing body may be found:

Part 4. Community engagement bodies

Does the institution host or support one or more formal bodies through which external stakeholders have a regular voice in institutional decisions that affect them?:
Yes

A brief description of the campus-community council or equivalent body that gives external stakeholders a regular voice in institutional decisions that affect them:
FGCU's Town & Gown boast a long and rich tradition of supporting Southwest Florida’s regional comprehensive university, Florida Gulf Coast University. Our mission is to provide service, to advance understanding, and to promote friendship between FGCU and the Community. Town & Gown supports student scholarship, food insecurity and other faculty projects. Members attend two signature meetings which feature faculty speakers and campus updates from FGCU administration. Town & Gown actively participates and attends University events such as concerts, art shows, athletics, lectures, and more. Members are from Charlotte, Collier, Glades, Hendry and Lee Counties.

Optional Fields 

Number of people from underrepresented groups serving as official members of the institution’s highest governing body.:
---

Website URL where information about the institution’s governance structure is available:
---

Additional documentation to support the submission:
---

Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
FGCU Shared Governance Policy: https://www.fgcu.edu/generalcounsel/policies/approved/Policy_2_012_SharedGovernance_06132014_ada.pdf

FGCU Student Government: https://www.fgcu.edu/sg/

FGCU Staff Advisory Council Charter: https://www.fgcu.edu/sac/files/about/charter.pdf

FGCU Faculty Senate: https://www.fgcu.edu/facultysenate/

The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.