Overall Rating Silver - expired
Overall Score 52.59
Liaison Delicia Nahman
Submission Date March 3, 2020

STARS v2.2

Lafayette College
PA-3: Inclusive and Participatory Governance

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 1.88 / 3.00 Amir Tejani
Special Asst for Strategic Planning & Implementation
Office of the President
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

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 highest governing body is the Board of Trustees. The Board invites officers or representatives of the President of the Alumni Association, the Clerk of the Faculty and the Student Government President as it deems advisable to attend Board meetings to participate in discussion but not to vote. These individuals prepare reports the Trustees read in preparation for on-campus meetings and often prepare presentations or provide updates on campus issues at Board meetings.

Students have input on the College's mission through student representatives on both Faculty and Trustee committees and meetings as well as Student Government's formal and informal meetings with the Trustees, Faculty, and Administration.

All faculty at Lafayette are invited to monthly meetings of the faculty, where business is conducted (including the adoption of policies, strategic plans, and other academic standards) following parliamentary procedure. However, while all faculty are invited to attend, only non-visiting Instructors, Assistant Professors, Associate Professors, Professors, and Librarians with professional status may vote. Further, those faculty have the right to speak repeatedly to an issue, a right not extended to other attendees of the meetings, though in practice this right has been offered to all in attendance.

Non academic staff are represented by the Administrative Staff Council, who are elected by their peers. The council holds meetings with cabinet level leadership and are representative of staff concerns across the institution. There is also a union organization on campus that represents secretarial and trade related employees that works directly with the administration to negotiate relevant policies and compensation.


Total number of individuals on the institution’s highest governing body:
34

Number of students representing their peers as official members of the institution’s highest governing body:
0

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

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

Number of women serving as official members of the institution’s highest governing body:
12

Percentage of official members of the highest governing body that are women:
35.29

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

Lafayette engages with several community groups on a regular basis. The position of Assistant to the President for Board and Community Relations serves as a conduit for external stakeholder engagement with the college. Specifically, this employee of the college works with members of the community on the development of strategic town gown relations and relevant programming and policies that impact the community and institutional relationship. As part of this work the college annually hosts a town hall meeting where members of the community are invited to discuss the state of the college and issues related to community engagement between the college and external stakeholders.


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

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.