WCC New Initiatives Forum

The WCC New Initiatives Forum encourages WCC faculty, staff, and administrative personnel to learn about, comment on, question, or disclose any new initiatives being considered for the college.

What is a New Initiative and How Do I Submit One?

A new initiative is defined as anything that will impact campus resources or infrastructure.  This includes new grants, certificate programs, outreach activities, and long-term facility or grounds commitments such as a day care center.  Faculty, staff, or administration personnel who undertake such new initiatives are asked to submit to the Chair of the Faculty Senate New Initiatives Subcommittee a brief statement on the initiative and its rationale, including, if possible, the anticipated impact on the college or its resources, and a disclosure on funding. See existing initiatives as models.  The Chair of the the subcommittee is Robert Barclay, and you can email him your new initiative statement at rbarclay@hawaii.edu. The initiative will appear shortly on the forum, and you can then revisit periodically or simply click the “notify me” button at the bottom of the initiative to receive all commentary or questions about it.

The Process:

Once a new initiative is posted here on the forum, it can be found to the left under “Pages. ” Once you click the link, you will see a page detailing the new initiative, and there will be a running message board below it where interested parties may make comments, ask questions, or provide advice. Also, when a new initiative is posted to the forum, a fac/staff email will be sent with a link to the page and an invitation to participate in the forum. To comment on an initiative, you must provide a name and an email address, but if you prefer to remain anonymous, you may simply use an alias.

Given that personnel undertaking a new initiative may neglect to visit the New Initiatives Forum, members of the New Initiatives Subcommittee will maintain communication with the Chancellor’s office, the CCAAC, the Faculty Senate, and the Strategic Planning and Budget Committee, in order to identify any new initiatives, at their earliest possible development, and to invite the responsible parties to post appropriate information on the New Initiatives Forum.

It is not the New Initiatives Subcommittee’s role to shepherd parties through their various planning or procedural processes, or to analyze their relationship or relevance to the college’s Strategic Plan.  That is, in part, what the forum invites.

Once a new initiative enters formal consideration by representative bodies of the college, such as the CCAAC or the Faculty Senate, it will be moved from the New Initiatives Forum and archived, where its conversation can still be viewed.