Brown is home to an alphabet soup of 18 advisory committees - such as the URC, CCC, BUCC, CAB and CAC - in which undergraduates take an active role in determining University policy. To join these committees, students apply to the Undergraduate Council of Students, which has strict procedures on how it evaluates applicants. But some students question the selection process and cite mistakes made in past years, suggesting the possible need for more oversight or, perhaps, a complete overhaul.
A complex processAccording to the UCS Code of Operations, each spring, the UCS appointments chair and another member appointed by the council's vice president select no fewer than seven students unaffiliated with UCS to form an ad hoc appointments committee, which must be ratified by the full UCS body. The appointments chair then creates applications for each committee and makes them available to the entire undergraduate population.
Applicants are given the opportunity to meet with current members of the University committee to which they are applying. For each committee seeking to fill open spaces, the appointments chair formulates an interview panel, which is made up of two members of the appointments committee, a current member of the relevant committee and the UCS member "whose project or interest falls under the jurisdiction of that committee," according to the UCS code.
Each panel conducts all interviews for its specific committee and forms its own questions beforehand, though panelists may ask individual questions during the actual interview. The UCS appointments chair is given direct responsibility for ensuring that no one on the panel has any potential biases or conflicts of interest.
Each interview panel must then make its recommendations to UCS within 24 hours of its final interview. Panels must inform UCS of any general questions asked of all candidates, specific qualities sought in them and whether or not there have been any appeals. The UCS general body then votes on whether to accept the recommendations, a step that requires a two-thirds majority.
Up to 50 spots may become available on various committees for the spring appointments process - when spots for the following academic year are filled. According to UCS Appointments Chair Benjamin Boas '06.5, applications for the committees have been drafted and came up for approval during a recent meeting.
But when spots have to be filled in the middle of the year, the procedure is less clear. This generally happens when students go abroad, take a leave of absence, resign or become ineligible to serve. While UCS bylaws outline a detailed process for annual appointments, they do not specify how that process should accommodate unplanned vacancies that, according to Boas, often have to be filled under tight deadlines imposed by administrators.
"Administrators are usually in such a hurry to fill open spots that they don't give us as much time as I would sometimes like," he said.
Still, Boas insists the appointments committee is careful to preserve the impartial nature of the process. "My priority is running the process strictly by the book. It's really the only way to be fair," he said.
Conflict over procedure, impartialityIn the past, it appears the process laid out by UCS rules was not always followed. According to Residential Council Chair Brendan Hargreaves '06 and others, not all candidates were interviewed, and, at least for ResCouncil, applications were misleading and repetitive. The breach of procedure and lack of interviews suggest there was little deliberation involved in appointing students to University committees.
"I'm not saying the choices made were necessarily incorrect, but the procedures set forth in UCS's Code of Operations were not followed," Hargreaves said.
Last spring, Hargreaves, Boas and one other student who held a committee appointment spoke out against this lack of process at the UCS general body meeting in which they were to be confirmed to their positions. As a result, the approval was postponed by a week so interviews could be conducted.
According to Hargreaves, at least one UCS member then suggested that the three people who complained of the breach in process consider running for chair of the appointments committee the following year. Apparently, Boas heeded that suggestion.
Will Cunningham '07 and Ben Creo '07, past appointment chairs who are both studying abroad this semester, did not return calls or e-mails from The Herald.
Though the full springtime selection of 2006-2007 University committee members has not yet taken place, several spots have been filled since the beginning of the year. These include one position on the Honorary Degrees Committee and, most recently, on the University Resources Committee. The URC recommends a budget and reports on Brown's finances to the president, who then passes the budget on to the Brown Corporation for approval.
Some have pointed to the recent URC appointment as evidence that the process can still be unfair - even when correctly followed.
Cash McCracken '08, who is currently a representative of both the Undergraduate Finance Board and UCS, applied for a position on URC but was rejected. Under UCS bylaws, a person may not serve on more than two advisory committees formed by appointment. McCracken, however, remained eligible because UCS members are voted in by the student body, not appointed.
At least one UCS member told The Herald there were concerns about a potential conflict of interest in having McCracken serve on so many committees. Boas, citing the confidentiality of the selection process, declined to comment on why McCracken was not recommended.
"I was disappointed in the outcome, but also in the manner in which the interview process was conducted," McCracken said. "Ultimately, I think the process was partial, and was based more on personal thoughts about me, about me on UCS, about me as a person."
McCracken would not point to any specific evidence of partiality but said he "knew the results the moment I stepped into the interview."
McCracken said he has chosen not to appeal because he does not have "sour grapes" and is not bitter, adding, "The people to whom you would appeal are the same people running the process in the first place. Appointments are handled by a self-selecting group of UCS representatives. My case was endemic of a larger problem within the appointments process."
Despite concerns about McCracken serving on multiple committees, some UCS members do serve on multiple advisory committees. Kate Brandt '07, for example, serves on both UCS and the Brown University Community Council. Boas, despite being the appointments chair, also serves on ResCouncil.
Speaking generally, Boas said, "I don't like those cases of concentration of power in undergraduate appointments. Having a wide range of people can only help us form a strong diversity of opinion."
"If a UCS member applied for a position, he would have no special advantage," Boas said. "A majority of people who apply for these positions are not UCS members. If it were any other way, I'd be very disappointed."
But Boas did acknowledge that some UCS members are particularly qualified to be on University committees because of their experience working with administrators and because of their special knowledge of University governance, though this is a "minority."
"At many times in the past it has been suggested by various ResCouncil members that we should distance ourselves from UCS in a way that would allow us to appoint our own members," Hargreaves said. "Personally, I think they can appoint people just fine, however, I'm not necessarily convinced that UCS as an organization itself has enough knowledge about each individual committee to which they appoint people to make the best appointments."
An important roleDespite criticisms, both committee members and those involved with the selection process agree University committees have an important role to play. The College Curriculum Council's four undergraduate members help advise curricular policies in the College, including regulations regarding independent study projects, teaching guidelines and, most recently, grading policies.
CCC member Freya Zaheer '06 said, "I thought it would be interesting to see how University governance works. I had heard it was a committee where students had a lot of input. I think we're taken pretty seriously."
The CCC has recently taken up the plus/minus issue. Zaheer said that though personally she is undecided, overwhelming student opposition has led her to oppose the proposal.
"Even if (students) did all vote against it and everyone else voted for it, the vote would be 10 to four. We have been advocating for students as much as we can, but it's really up to students to change the faculty's minds at the public forums that have been established," Zaheer said.
ResCouncil has also received attention lately because of its successful recommendation of a revised housing lottery system.
Members of University committees have a role to play not only within the context of their committee but also as liaisons to UCS. UCS bylaws state members of committees serve at "the pleasure of the duly-elected student government," though it is unclear if and how that rule is enforced.
"In previous years there were several members of ResCouncil who wanted absolutely nothing to do with UCS, and they had their very legitimate reasons for it," Hargreaves said. "We did not appreciate the way the scavenger hunt was handled two years ago. Most of those members are gone now, and our relationship has gotten considerably better. Several UCS members have attended several meetings."
Hargreaves said UCS and ResCouncil now work together often, citing examples of discussions regarding incoming first-years' housing questionnaires.
Boas pointed to the collaboration between UCS and ResCouncil as well as UCS and the CCC as examples of effective committee cooperation. He said he personally looks for applications that show a comprehension of how University policy is formed.
Besides ResCouncil and the CCC, a bevy of other committees cover everything from computing policies to discipline to environmental policy to socially responsible investing of the University's endowment.
According to Boas, Brown is one of few colleges to give its students such an extensive level of input in so many areas of campus life. He and Hargreaves both note that students who are wary of parliamentary procedure needn't worry. Highly structured rules of debate are not as prevalent on advisory committees as they are with UCS, they said.
"UCS is transparent so it gets more face time," Boas said, "but many of these University committees are just as, if not more, effective than the student government."
