Steering Committee

Steering Committee Members

The Steering Committee is the main governance body for CWGS and is composed of fifteen voting members (12 faculty and three students) as well as several ex-officio members.

The Faculty Voting Members of the Steering Committee include:

Dana Cloud, Communications ( 2009-11)
Carolyn Eastman, History (2009-11)
Tracie Harrison, Nursing (2009-11)
Kathleen Higgins, Philosophy (2009-11)
Barbara Jones, Social Work (2009-11)
Joni (Omi) Jones, Theatre and Dance (2008-10)
Cynthia Osborne, LBJ School of Public Affairs (2009-11)
Yolanda Padilla, Social Work (2008-10)
Loriene Roy, School of Information (2009-11)
Sharmila Rudrappa, Sociology (2008-10)
Janet Staiger, Radio-Television-Film (2008-10)
Sharon Wood, Engineering (2008-10)

Ex-Officio members:

Susan Sage Heinzelman, Director
Alissa Sherry,  Associate Director
Rebecca Bigler, Graduate Studies Committee Chair
Pat Heisler, Senior Administrator

Student Members:

    Maggie Cheu, WGS Senior, Undergraduate Representative (2009-10)
    Katherine Briggs, WGS 1st-year cohort, MA Program Representative (2009-10)
    Naminata Diabate, Comparative Literature Ph.D. student, Portfolio Program Representative (2009-10)

Structure:

1. Faculty Members (twelve total):
a. Eight elected faculty members (half selected each year) from the list of CWGS Faculty Affiliates – from four categories of affiliated schools and colleges. All faculty affiliates can vote for all four positions (one per category) each year.
College and school categories (one seat selected per category, per year):

• Liberal Arts
• Social Work, Pharmacy, Nursing
• Communications, Engineering, Information, Natural Sciences
• Business, LBJ, Fine Arts, Architecture, Education, Law

b. Four appointed faculty members (half selected each year) from the list of CWGS Faculty Affiliates. These members will be selected by the Director to maximize diversity (by discipline and rank) and representation on the committee.

c. Terms and rotation

Each year six new faculty members (four elected, two appointed) will join the committee for two-year terms. These terms are renewable once (for a maximum of four years total) either by election or appointment, then a two year hiatus is required before a faculty member is eligible to serve on the committee again.

2. Ex-Officio, nonvoting Members (four total):

• Director
• GSC Chair
• Graduate Advisor/Associate Director
• Assistant to Director

3. Student Representatives (three total):

• 1 undergraduate student (appointed by the Director)
• 1 doctoral portfolio student (appointed by the Director)
• 1 CWGS MA student (elected by CWGS MA students)

These are non-voting, one-year terms. The student members shall be appointed or elected by October 1 of each year to serve through the remainder of the academic year.

4. Nominations and Elections

Nominations will be accepted from all affiliates during the last four weeks of the spring semester prior to the fall elections. Self-nominations are also accepted. The top five nominees (in terms of the number of nominations received) per category shall be placed on the ballot. Affiliates are limited to two nominees per category, for a maximum of eight names for the four members to be elected.

Elections will be held the first week of the fall semester. Ballots will be mailed to all faculty affiliates the week prior to the start of the fall semester with a request that they be returned to the CWGS office by 5 pm on the Friday of the first week of classes. Emailed ballots (sent to the Assistant to the Director) will also be accepted.