A. Introduction

As is characteristic of campus governance in American colleges and universities generally, several systems of decision-making or groups of decision-makers exist at Colgate and interact in complex ways, formal and informal, to produce University policies. These include the Board of Trustees; the President and the University administration; the elective system of the campus governance enacted in 1979 (the "Colgate Governance System"); the corporate Faculty, which meets monthly, and which has certain Faculty committees reporting directly to it as well as having the power of review concerning actions of the Academic Affairs Board; the Dean of the Faculty and the Dean's Advisory Council; the respective academic departments which report through division directors to the Dean of the Faculty; and the Student Senate, which has primary responsibility for allocating moneys raised by the student activities fee to various student organizations.

The Constitution of the Colgate Governance System was formally adopted by the faculty on April 16, 1979. The major components of the system include an Academic Affairs Board and a Student Affairs Board, on which faculty, students and administrators sit; a Conference Board, which may be called into existence by the President when the occasion warrants; Liaison Committees in five defined areas; and, in extraordinary circumstances, special Task Forces appointed by the President of the University.¹