Academic Council

Mandate

The Academic Council serves as a body of communication that links faculty, administrative, and student interest in academic programming at North Park University. This collegial body has two major functions; advisory and recommending.

Advisory Function

Advises the Office of the Provost on matters of long-range academic planning and priorities.
Regularly reviews the university’s educational objectives in relationship to current and proposed curricular programs.
Develops strategies for the inclusion of university’s three core identities across curricular programs.
Receives and reviews appropriate reports from standing and ad hoc committees prior to presentation for a vote by faculty.
Facilitates cross-departmental collaborations (e.g. undergraduate research, honors programs, general education).
Recommends and creates working committees (e.g. Academic Structure Task Force, Graduate Studies Task Force, MAPP Review Task Force).
Develops the agenda for faculty meetings.
Reviews and recommends committee memberships and faculty officers.

Recommending Function

Reviews MAPP and Faculty By-Laws annually to provide recommendations for updates/changes.
Recommends policies related to curricular programs.
Develops and clarifies criteria, procedures and protocols for processing academic issues.

Some decisions made by Educational Assessment, Personnel Development, and the IRB do not require review by the Council, but should be reported to the Academic Council when appropriate before presentation to university faculty. The full Academic Council meets at least once per month during the academic calendar. Working committees may meet more frequently to prepare work for review by the full Council.

Membership

The Academic Council is chaired by the Provost or his/her designee and includes the following members:

Dean of the College
Vice Chair of the Faculty
Deans of the Schools
Directors of Divisions
Director of the Library
Student Government representative
Dean of the Diversity and Intercultural Programs
Associate Dean in the Office of Distributed Learning
Others determined by the Provost and Council
University Standing and Ad Hoc committee chairs will be invited for discussions in related areas.