Bellevue College announced last Wednesday that members and people interested in becoming members of BC Governance, the school’s government body, are invited to a series of four workshops to prepare for running the school during the 2023-24 school year. The meetings will be held on August 21, 23, 28 and 30. The topics to be discussed will range from goal-setting and leadership to the history of the governance councils.
To remind our readers of how BC Governance works: The structure of BC Governance, since 2017, has been composed of various parts and centers around the College Assembly. This is composed of eight groups called “councils.” Four of these — student, exempt (referring to employees who are paid via salary), classified (referring to those paid an hourly rate), and faculty — are “Constituency Councils,” meaning their job is to represent the interests and views of each of their respective groups. The other four councils — Student Success, Resources & Planning, Diversity & Inclusion, and Infrastructure — are “Functional Councils,” meaning their job is to represent specific day-to-day operations within BC. Each council consists of members from the group represented. There is also a group heading the assembly, which is composed of the heads of each of the eight councils and the chair of the assembly.
Any issue or topic that the assembly discusses first enters the council that it most relates to. The topic, after discussion among and/or between councils, will then carry either an input or a recommendation. An input refers to an informal opinion given by the assembly or council, and a recommendation is a written document detailing a proposed course of action. A recommendation must receive an endorsement from the assembly in order to go to the next step of the decision-making process: a response from the president. This must be in writing. If the president approves, the proposal is carried out, and if not, discussion must continue until an agreement is reached or nothing will happen. The president also talks regularly with the assembly and/or the assembly chair about the status of recommendations.
Although not involved with recommendations, the highest level of authority is the Board of Trustees. Their job is to establish general policy for BC. Their day-to-day powers are delegated to the president.
