Academic Planning Council (APC)

(Bylaws, Article 14.3)

Membership of APC
Minutes of APC

14.3 Academic Planning Council

14.3.1 Composition 

14.3.1.1 Faculty Representation

(A) Fourteen faculty representatives shall be chosen as follows: two each from the Colleges of Business, Education, Engineering and Engineering Technology, Health and Human Sciences, and Visual and Performing Arts; one from the College of Law; three from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (one each from the areas of the humanities, the social sciences, and the other sciences).

(B) Faculty shall be elected by the college council of the college they represent, or by the college faculty if there is no college council. They shall serve three-year staggered terms beginning in the fall semester. If no elected faculty representative is a voting member of the Faculty Senate, the Senate shall elect one Senate member to serve on the council as ex officio, nonvoting member. No department shall have more than one faculty representative at any one time. 

14.3.1.2 Student Representation

(A) Two students, one undergraduate and one graduate, shall be appointed annually as voting members of the council. The appointments shall be made by the president of the Student Association from a list of nominees submitted by the college student advisory committees. Each student advisory committee shall be entitled to nominate annually one undergraduate and one graduate student, as appropriate to degrees offered in that college. Terms of office for student members shall begin at the beginning of the fall semester; no such term shall extend beyond the beginning of the succeeding fall semester. Students shall be eligible for reappointment to successive terms. 

14.3.1.3 Administration Representation

(A) The executive vice president and provost who shall serve ex officio.

(B) The following, or their designees, shall serve ex officio, without vote:

vice provost responsible for undergraduate education; 
vice president for research and graduate studies;
associate vice provost for academic development and planning;
associate vice provost for resource planning;
dean of the University Libraries;
director of the office of Institutional Research.

(C) Others who may be directly involved in issues concerning academic programs may assist the committee as resource personnel. 

14.3.2 Chair 

14.3.2.1 The executive vice president and provost shall serve as the chair of the council and shall vote when necessary to break a tie vote. 

14.3.2.2 The faculty representatives on the council shall elect from among their members a faculty representative who shall serve as the assistant chair of the council. The assistant chair shall preside over council meetings in the absence of the chair, act as a liaison between the chair and council members between meetings of the council, and perform such other duties as may be assigned by either the council or the council chair. The assistant chair shall be chosen annually at the first meeting of the council each fall semester and shall serve a renewable term of one year. 

14.3.3 Duties -- Working with the college curriculum committees, the Undergraduate Coordinating Council, and the Graduate Council, and reporting to the University Council, the council shall: 

14.3.3.1 Prepare and periodically update the academic mission statement for Northern Illinois University. 

14.3.3.2 Develop and periodically bring up-to-date plans and strategies to fulfill the university's academic mission. 

14.3.3.3 Develop and implement procedures for the periodic review of academic programs in terms of their quality and their consistency with the institution's academic mission.

14.3.3.4 Advise the executive vice president and provost on academic priorities and strategies for the achievement of those priorities, including the establishment of priorities in budgeting. 

14.3.3.5 Make recommendations to the curriculum committees of the respective colleges and to the Undergraduate Coordinating Council and the Graduate Council. 

14.3.4 Academic Planning Council minutes and reports are to be distributed to all University Council and Faculty Senate members and deposited in the university archives.

14.3.5 All substantive policy recommendations are subject to University Council approval.

Academic Planning Council (APC)

The APC meets on selected Mondays during the academic year at 3 p.m.

* chair
^ ex officio
+ ex officio, nonvoting
**assistant chair