Preliminary Guide to the Washington State University Faculty Executive (Status) Committee Records, 1969-1972

The Washington State University Faculty Executive Committee (FEC), under the name Executive Committee of the Faculty of the State College of Washington, was first organized in January 1934. From this beginning two long-standing concerns of the committee were evident: academic tenure and faculty salaries. Other matters of concern to the faculty were also quickly brought before the committee.

Because of what were termed "practical difficulties" encountered by the committee, it nearly ceased operations during 1936 and 1937. In late 1937 the committee proposed its own dissolution and the establishment of a Faculty Advisory Committee. By vote of the faculty this was done and the Faculty Advisory Committee was established in October, 1937. The change in name was meant to be a change in function.

In 1945, as a result of the reorganizations proposed by the Committee of Forty, the Faculty Executive Committee was re-established and took over the functions of the Faculty Advisory Committee. Recent accounts of the history of the committee refer to the 1945 body as the "first" establishment of the committee. In each case the records of the preceding body were transferred to its successor.

In the fall of 1971, with the establishment of the University Senate and the subsequent reorganization of the committee structure, the FEC was again dissolved. Its functions were divided between the Faculty Affairs Committee of the University Senate (which did not begin operations until the following spring) and the faculty-elected Faculty Status Committee. This split assigned personnel arbitration, a major function of the FEC, to the Faculty Status Committee. Other matters, formerly the responsibility of the FEC, were turned over to the Senate's Faculty Affairs Committee. These included policy recommendations on appointments, promotion, tenure, leave of absence, standards of performance, professional ethics, faculty rights and responsibilities, academic freedom and faculty compensation. All of these were given on-going consideration as revisions were proposed to the Faculty Manual. Between the demise of the FEC and the establishment of the Faculty Affairs Committee these matters were also handled by the Faculty Status Committee.